Envisioning robotic surgery: Surgeons' needs and views on interacting with future technologies and interfaces

User interfaces for actuated scope maneuvering in surgical systems: a scoping review

BACKGROUND

A variety of human computer interfaces are used by robotic surgical systems to control and actuate camera scopes during minimally invasive surgery. The purpose of this review is to examine the different user interfaces used in both commercial systems and research prototypes.

METHODS

A comprehensive scoping review of scientific literature was conducted using PubMed and IEEE Xplore databases to identify user interfaces used in commercial products and research prototypes of robotic surgical systems and robotic scope holders. Papers related to actuated scopes with human-computer interfaces were included. Several aspects of user interfaces for scope manipulation in commercial and research systems were reviewed.

RESULTS

Scope assistance was classified into robotic surgical systems (for multiple port, single port, and natural orifice) and robotic scope holders (for rigid, articulated, and flexible endoscopes). Benefits and drawbacks of control by different user interfaces such as foot, hand, voice, head, eye, and tool tracking were outlined. In the review, it was observed that hand control, with its familiarity and intuitiveness, is the most used interface in commercially available systems. Control by foot, head tracking, and tool tracking are increasingly used to address limitations, such as interruptions to surgical workflow, caused by using a hand interface.

CONCLUSION

Integrating a combination of different user interfaces for scope manipulation may provide maximum benefit for the surgeons. However, smooth transition between interfaces might pose a challenge while combining controls.

Requirements elicitation for robotic and computer-assisted minimally invasive surgery

The robotic surgical systems and computer-assisted technologies market has seen impressive growth over the last decades, but uptake by end-users is still scarce. The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive and informed list of the end-user requirements for the development of new generation robot- and computer-assisted surgical systems and the methodology for eliciting them. The requirements were elicited, in the frame of the EU project SMARTsurg, by conducting interviews on use cases of chosen urology, cardiovascular and orthopaedics procedures, tailored to provide clinical foundations for scientific and technical developments. The structured interviews resulted in detailed requirement specifications which are ranked according to their priorities. Paradigmatic surgical scenarios support the use cases.

Overview on the Evolution of Laser Welding of Vascular and Nervous Tissues

Laser welding presents a core position in the health sector. This process has had an outstanding impact on the surgical procedures from many medical areas, such as on vascular and nervous surgeries. The aim of the present research is to present an overview on the evolution of laser welding of vascular and nervous tissues. These surgeries present many advantages, such as an absence of foreign-body reactions and aneurysms and good tensile strengths. However, despite the sutureless nature of the process, complementary sutures have been applied to support the procedure success. An important concern in vascular and nervous laser welding is the thermal damage. The development of temperature-controlled feedback systems has reduced this concern with a very precise control of the laser parameters. The bonding strength of vascular and nerve laser welds can be enhanced with the application of solder solutions, bonding materials, and laser-activated dyes. Alternative techniques to laser welding, such as photochemical tissue bonding and electrosurgical high-frequency technologies, have also been tested for vascular and nervous repairs.