NBC News 10-year MAUDE analysis of da Vinci adverse events
S4 · not documented · Intuitive Surgical
Record
| Company | Intuitive Surgical |
| Industry | Medical robotics |
| Type(s) | malfunction |
| Date | not documented (date not documented) |
| Time of day | not documented |
| Location | no physical site (recall / fleet-wide / aggregate record) |
| Severity | (serious injury, total loss, or grounding) |
| Scale | 20,000+ adverse events, 274 deaths, 2,000+ injuries, 17,000 malfunctions, aggregate MAUDE data |
| Confidence | high |
| Verified flag | Yes - independently re-checked against the cited source |
Summary
An NBC News analysis of FDA MAUDE reports over a 10-year period found more than 20,000 adverse events related to the da Vinci system, including over 2,000 injury reports, 274 deaths, and nearly 17,000 device malfunctions.
Primary source
Publisher: NBC News · Retrieved: 2026-09-16
Supporting source rows (1)
| Date | Supporting source row | Publisher | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| not documented | NBC News 10-year MAUDE analysis of da Vinci adverse events | NBC News | NBC News |
Intuitive Surgical other incidents timeline
Medical robotics context
malfunction context
Intuitive Surgical industry position
Related incidents
Other Intuitive Surgical entries
- 18 Mar 2026 - FDA issues emergency alert on da Vinci-compatible surgical stapler reloads after 1 death, 4 injuries
- 11 Mar 2026 - Class I recall of da Vinci SureForm stapler reloads after patient death
- 26 Feb 2025 - Class II recall of da Vinci 5 foot pedal over spring failure
- ~2025 - 2015-2025 MAUDE study finds continued adverse event rate in da Vinci procedures
- ~Sep 2021 - Lawsuit: da Vinci surgical robot burned woman's small intestine
- ~2013 - 14-year FDA MAUDE analysis finds 144 deaths, 1,391 injuries in robotic surgery (2000-2013)
- not documented - Class II recall of da Vinci reusable instruments (forceps, scissors, drivers, graspers) over cable fraying
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