Transoral robotic surgery (TORS) in South Africa

Abstract

A series of two-page advertisements have appeared in the September and November 2016 issues of the SAMJ, entitled ‘da Vinci Transoral Robotic Surgery (TORS) is a minimally invasive alternative to open surgery and full-dose chemoradiation therapy for diseases of the head and neck’. As these advertisements go beyond simply marketing surgical equipment, but seek to influence patients, referring doctors, oncologists and head and neck surgeons on how to treat cancers of the head and neck and sleep apnoea, we have taken the unusual step of writing to the editor of the SAMJ to correct some misconceptions in the advertisement.