Robot surgeons are booming in Italy, the world's second biggest user of the technology after the United States.
At the end of last year Italy had 29 robots operating in its hospitals compared to 13 in Germany and only one in France, said Pier Cristoforo Giulianotti of the Minimally Invasive Robotic Association (MIRA).
At the last count, some 210 robots were wielding their scalpels in the United States.
''Robots still cost a lot financially but they bring big savings in social costs,'' Giulianotti said.
The MIRA chief predicted that ''within a few years,'' 80-85% of 'open surgery' - where skin and tissues are cut to give access to organs - would be carried out by robots.
Robots now operate in most fields, from gynecology to chest and vascular surgery, and have virtually replaced humans in prostate cancer operations, the MIRA delegates will report.
Among other events, the conference will follow via video link a prostatectomy (removal of the prostate gland) performed by the Da Vinci robot which has just taken up duty at Rome's San Giovanni Hospital.
