Milestones
- FDA clearanceFeb 2019Complete.
- International expansionNowCurrent milestone.
Most important updates
- 8 Oct 2025
- 4 Aug 2025
- 21 Mar 2024
- 19 Feb 2019
Upcoming
- 20 Oct 2026Intuitive reports Q3 2026 results, including Ion procedure growthin 10 days (next)
Current obstacles
- Sampling tiny nodulesReaching a nodule isn't the same as sampling it. The lung shifts with breathing, so it may not be where the scan showed.
Physics limits
- Airways shrink below the catheter's sizeAirways branch about 23 times from windpipe to air sacs, narrowing to well under a millimetre. Past a point the 3.5 mm catheter cannot follow, and the needle must cross tissue blind.
- The lung is not where the CT saysBreathing moves nodules by centimetres, and lungs partly collapse under anaesthesia. The live anatomy drifts from the planning scan, so the tip can be on the map but off the nodule.
- Small samples can miss cancerA needle takes a few thin cores from a nodule often under 2 cm. If they miss the malignant cells, the result is falsely reassuring, so diagnostic yield never reaches 100%.
How it works
A 3.5 mm steerable tube
A thin catheter with a 2 mm working channel bends up to 180 degrees in any direction to follow branching airways deep into the lung.
Light in a fibre measures shape
An optical fibre along the catheter reads its own bending from changes in reflected light, so the system knows where the tip is without constant X-rays.
Route from the CT scan
Planning software turns the patient's CT scan into a 3D airway map and plots a path to the nodule before the procedure.
Needle through a locked catheter
At the target the catheter holds its shape while a flexible needle passes through it to take tissue, often checked with cone-beam CT.
Update log
Wed 8 Oct 2025
- Minor: PressRegulatory
Mon 4 Aug 2025
- Minor: PressCommercial
Thu 21 Mar 2024
- Minor: RegulatorRegulatory
Tue 19 Feb 2019
- Major: PressRegulatory
About Intuitive Surgical
Intuitive Surgical
da Vinci surgical robots, Ion lung biopsy
Intuitive Surgical makes da Vinci surgical robots and Ion, a robot for lung biopsies. It pioneered robotic surgery after FDA clearance in 2000 and had 11,710 da Vinci systems installed by June 2026. Most revenue comes from instruments and service.
- The leader: 11,710 da Vinci systems installed as of June 30, 2026, up 12% in a year.
- da Vinci 5 (FDA-cleared March 2024) was 246 of 468 system placements in Q2 2026.
- Procedures drive the business: da Vinci procedures grew about 15% and Ion about 36% in Q2 2026.
- Founded
- 199531 yrs
- Headquarters
- United States
- Status
- Public
- Listed
- ISRG (opens google.com)NASDAQ
- Valuation
- public
- Coverage
- 2 programs · 10 updateslatest 16 Jul 2026checked 25 Sep
- Partners
- US FDA (opens fda.gov)
- People
- Dave RosaCEOGary GuthartExecutive Chair