Sixty five percent of U.S. adults are either overweight or obese, a staggering 119 million people. Based on projections, the number of overweight and obese Americans will continue to increase, and by 2008, 73 percent of U.S. adults could be overweight or obese.

As obesity becomes a larger problem, the number of gastric bypass operations being performed is also increasing. From 1999 to 2004 in the U.S., the number of surgeries increased from 29,000 procedures to about 141,000, according to the American Society for Bariatric Surgery.

Gastric bypass procedures have about a 2 percent risk of mortality. Associate professor of surgery at Stanford University, Myriam Curet, M.D., is using a robot to improve surgical techniques. The robot allows doctors who must normally stand on their feet for hours to sit comfortably during the entire surgical procedure using a remote control to guide the robot. Opposed to the risk of shaking or becoming fatigued during surgery, the robot can move the organs steadily.

In addition, the robot has greater mobility and can move its’ arms with a wrist that has eight degrees of freedom. The three-D cameras that come equipped on the robot help a doctor's visualization during the surgery, and the smaller, hand-like devices allow for smaller incisions in the patient’s body.

The robot appears to reduce significant risks associated to gastric bypass, but before the surgery is adopted it must first be studied even further. Use of the robot could mean more precision, less pain, quicker recovery and greater satisfaction for gastric bypass surgeries in the future.

Robotic surgery has already been used to perform other surgeries.