Da Vinci, a $4.5 million robotic system, is proving a sensation in Toronto, Canada.

It is the first advanced surgical system of its kind in the Greater Toronto Area, points out Dr. Ken Pace of the St. Michael’s Hospital.

It performs minimally invasive surgery more quickly and safely. Besides doctors hope patients who get robot-assisted surgery will recover faster and have less post-operative pain and chance of infection.

"Everybody recognizes this is the present, or the future, of surgery," urologist Pace says.

"There is no question we can do better surgery with this than we can with the traditional laparoscopic approaches and even open surgery. It’s going to push us to the next level, allow us to do better surgery for our patients, and have a better outcome."

Urologists are the first to use the robot, primarily for prostate cancer surgeries but also for kidney blockages. The robot will also be called on by gynecologists doing hysterectomies, as well as general surgeons. Cardiac specialists intend to use the robot to replace some types of heart valves, writes Megan Ogilvie in Toronto Star.

The robot was designed to push the boundaries of laparoscopic surgery, in which a surgeon operates on a patient using long instruments inserted through "keyhole" incisions in the skin.

The robot’s main advantage is that its arms act like a surgeon’s hand, beyond the scope of a simple tool, says Pace, holding out a traditional laparoscopic instrument to make his point.