Robot-assisted surgery gains ground

Robot-assisted surgery is increasingly common in UK hospitals.

There are now 45 Da Vinci robots in England and Wales - machines that allow surgeons to operate remotely using very small, precise instruments attached to robotic arms.

In the first in a series of special reports on some of the year's most significant medical breakthroughs, the BBC's Victoria Gill went to see a robot-assisted operation at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield.