Abstract
Over the past century, abdominal surgery has seen a rapid transition from open procedures to less invasive methods, such as robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery (MIS). This study aimed to investigate and discuss the needs of MIS in terms of instrumentation and to inform the design of a novel instrument. A survey was conducted among surgeons regarding their opinions on surgical training, surgical systems, how satisfied they were with them and how easy they were to use. A concept for MIS robotic instrumentation was then developed and a series of focus groups with surgeons were run to discuss it. The initial prototype of the robotic instruments, herein demonstrated, comprises modular rigid links with soft joints actuated by shape memory alloy helix actuators; these instruments are controlled using a sensory hand exoskeleton. The results of the survey, as well as those of the focus groups, are presented here. A first prototype of the system was built and initial laboratory tests have been conducted in order to evaluate this approach. The analysed data from both the survey and the focus groups justify the chosen concept of an anthropomorphic MIS robotic system which imitates the natural motion of the hands.
Highlights
Invasive surgery (MIS) is performed through small incisions on the patient's body instead of one large opening.This is the pre-peer reviewed version of Advances in minimally invasive surgery (MIS) over the last decade have led to a convergence of techniques the following article: available for treatment of a number of conditions
The analysed data from both the survey and the focus groups justify the chosen concept of anthropomorphic MIS robotic instrumentation which imitates the natural motion of the hands
The proposed design for the instruments that we presented in [17], involves a three-finger robotic mechanism, which imitates the movements of the surgeon's thumb, index and middle finger
Summary
Invasive surgery (MIS) is performed through small incisions on the patient's body instead of one large opening (as in conventional open surgery). This is the pre-peer reviewed version of Advances in MIS over the last decade have led to a convergence of techniques the following article: available for treatment of a number of conditions. MIS procedures are becoming more common in hospitals Abdominal surgery has seen a rapid transition from open procedures to less invasive methods such as robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery (MIS).
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