Robotics in General Surgery: Update and Future Perspectives

Abstract

Robotics in General Surgery Medicine is going through a technological revolution that produces a paradigm shift and makes us think in new ways of treating and diagnosing our patients [1]. Minimally invasive surgery development and routine application in multiple procedures has been the main evolution in the last 50 years, bringing great benefits to patients, surgeons, hospitals and even insurance companies. In laparoscopic surgery the surgeon keeps control by handling patient’s tissues inside an insufflated cavity with an external fulcrum point for instrumentation. It changes drastically in robotic surgery, with the surgeon taking place in a virtual environment outside the operative field, with a distant and indirect control. SAGES defines robotic surgery as a surgical procedure that adds a computer technology enhancement interface to the interaction between the surgeon and his patient during a surgical operation and assumes some