Robotized prostate biopsy

A review on tele-manipulators for remote diagnostic procedures and surgery

With modern medicine and healthcare services improving in leaps and bounds, the integration of telemedicine has helped in expanding these specialised healthcare services to remote locations. Healthcare telerobotic systems form a component of telemedicine, which allows medical intervention from a distance. It has been nearly 40 years since a robotic technology, PUMA 560, was introduced to perform a stereotaxic biopsy in the brain. The use of telemanipulators for remote surgical procedures began around 1995, with the Aesop, the Zeus, and the da Vinci robotic surgery systems. Since then, the utilisation of robots has steadily increased in diverse healthcare disciplines, from clinical diagnosis to telesurgery. The telemanipulator system functions in a master–slave protocol mode, with the doctor operating the master system, aided by audio-visual and haptic feedback. Based on the control commands from the master, the slave system, a remote manipulator, interacts directly with the patient. It eliminates the requirement for the doctor to be physically present in the spatial vicinity of the patient by virtually bringing expert-guided medical services to them. Post the Covid-19 pandemic, an exponential surge in the utilisation of telerobotic systems has been observed. This study aims to present an organised review of the state-of-the-art telemanipulators used for remote diagnostic procedures and surgeries, highlighting their challenges and scope for future research and development.

Telemedicine Applications in the Era of COVID-19: Telesurgery Issues

Telemedicine allows for the effective delivery of health care to patients at a distance through the application of information technology to the field of medicine. This is optimal during the COVID-19 pandemic to reduce interpersonal contact to mitigate contagion. Among the possible Telemedicine applications, there is Telesurgery, which involves more and more surgical specialties thanks to the numerous benefits in quality and cost containment. In the growing field of Telesurgery, its technical and legal implications must be considered. In this study, a traditional review of the scientific literature was carried out to identify the most relevant issues of interest in Telesurgery. The problematic legal aspects identified are mainly related to the difference in legislation between different geographical areas, which is critical in the case of malpractice. In addition, there is the possibility of a malicious hacker attack on the transmitted data stream either to steal sensitive data or to harm the patient. Finally, there are inherent difficulties with the technology used, such as latency issues in data transmission. All these critical issues are currently not adequately addressed by current legislation. Therefore, one can only hope for a legislative action to allow Telesurgery to be used safely.

Robotics and telesurgery – an update on their position in laparoscopic radical prostatectomy

Laparoscopy is handicapped by the reduction of the range of motion from six to only four degrees of freedom. In complicated cases (i.e. radical prostatectomy), there is often a crossing of the hands of surgeon and assistant. Finally, standard laparoscopes allow only 2D-vision. This has a major impact on technically difficult reconstructive procedures such as laparoscopic radical prostatectomy. Solutions include the understanding of the geometry of laparoscopy, but also newly developed surgical robots. During the last five years, there has been an increasing development and experience with robotics in urology. This article reviews the actual results focussing on the benefits and problems of robotics in laparoscopic radical prostatectomy. Own experiences with robot-assisted surgery include more than 1200 laparoscopic radical prostatectomies using a voice-controlled camera-arm (AESOP) as well as six telesurgical interventions with the da Vinci-system. Substantial experimental studies have been performed focussing on the geometry of laparoscopy and new training concepts such as perfused pelvitrainers and models for simulation of urethrovesical anastomosis. The recent literature on robotics in urology has been reviewed based on a MEDLINE/PUBMED research. The geometry of laparoscopy includes the angles between the instruments which have to be in a range of 25 degrees to 45 degrees ; the angles between the instrument and the working plane that should not exceed 55 degrees ; and the bi-planar angle between the shaft of the needle holder and the needle which has to be adapted according to the anatomical situation in range of 90 degrees to 110 degrees . 3-D-systems have not yet proved to be effective due to handling problems such as shutter glasses, video helmets or reduced brightness. At the moment, there are only two robotic surgical systems (AESOP, da Vinci) in clinical use, of which only the da Vinci provides stereovision and all six degrees of freedom (DOF). To date, more than 3000 laparoscopic radical prostatectomies have been performed worldwide at 92 centres with this system. The main advantage of the system represents the translation of open surgical skills to laparoscopy. Despite recent development of basic tools (e.g. bipolar forceps) for the da Vinci robot, investment and maintenance costs still represent the major problem of the device. Additionally, the device does not provide any haptic sense (i.e. tactile feedback). Robotic surgery represents a turning point of surgical research. However, broad use of robotic systems is limited mainly because of the high investment and running costs. Interestingly, more than in the field of cardiac surgery, there seems to be a need for telemanipulators in urology, mainly to reduce the learning curve of standard laparoscopy. However, new training concepts used in combination with mono-tasking computerized robots (AESOP) have proved their efficacy associated with a significant cost reduction.

Robotic and telesurgery: will they change our future?

In urology, at the end of the last millennium, there was an increasing use of computerized technology, extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy, microwave therapy and high-energy focused ultrasound. However, experience with manipulating robots in urological surgery is still very limited. Laparoscopic surgery is handicapped by a reduction of the range of motion because of the fixed trocar position. The da Vinci system is the first surgical system to address all these problems adequately. The system consists of two main components: the surgeon's viewing and control console with three-dimensional imaging and the surgical arm unit that positions and manoeuvres detachable surgical instruments. The surgeon performs the procedure seated at the console holding specially designed instruments. Telerobotic laparoscopic radical prostatectomy provides advantages such as stereovision, dexterity and tremor filtering, but there is a learning curve with the device, mainly because of the magnification, the three-dimensional image and the lack of tactile feedback. However, after only a short period of time, the experienced surgeon is able to become familiar with the device. The impact of robotics in urological surgery is therefore very promising, and we are convinced that it will totally change the future of urological surgery.