Abstract
Although the total number of ureteroscopy interventions during the past years has significantly increased, current flexible ureteroscopy procedures still present some limitations to urologic surgeons. However, nowadays different robotic systems have been developed in order to reduce those limitations. Flexible ureteroscopy robots provide a technological alternative which combines the benefits that this type of procedures offers to the patients, and solutions to the problems encountered from the surgeons perspective. In this paper, a virtual reality training platform for robot-assisted flexible ureterorenoscopy interventions is presented. A position based model for the virtual flexible endoscope is detailed and a standard user interface for the training platform is designed. Moreover, a comparative analysis of the performance of the training platform in different scenarios, including the navigation through a three-dimensional ureterorenal model, is presented. The obtained results determine that the training platform presents different computational rates depending on the complexity of the implemented environment and on the number of collisions and constraints that have to be handled. Nevertheless, the virtual model is visually plausible, effective for real-time user interaction and suitable for training.
Highlights
The presence of calculi in the urinary tract is known as urinary lithiasis or urolithiasis
WORK Flexible ureteroscopy robots provide a novel system that allows the remote control of the flexible endoscope by the use of robotics as an alternative to traditional ureterorenoscopy interventions
The main objective of the implementation of these robotic surgical systems is to meet the needs of both patients and surgeons, offering a solution to the limitations associated to the conventional flexible ureteroscopy (fURS) from the urologists point of view
Summary
The presence of calculi in the urinary tract is known as urinary lithiasis or urolithiasis. This urologic disease presents a high morbidity rate in the world. Urolithiasis incidence in pediatric patients has significantly increased in the last decades [2], [3]. Urologic guidelines state since more than one decade that open stone surgery has to be considered only in exceptional situations, usually associated with calculi complexity, failure of previous minimally invasive interventions and patient anatomical abnormalities [4]. The renal and ureteral calculi treatment recommendations included in the recent European Association of Urology guidelines have changed towards endourologic procedures, such as ureteroscopy (URS) and
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