ROBOTIC SURGERY
Robotic surgery offers numerous advantages for both patients and surgeons, representing a new step in minimally invasive surgery following laparoscopic surgery, which has already replaced conventional surgery in several fields.
What Robotic Surgery Provides for Patients?
1. Reduced Blood Loss and Lower Transfusion Needs:
Robotic surgical procedures are associated with less blood loss, especially in cancer surgery, reducing the need for intraoperative or postoperative blood transfusions.
2. Less Pain, Fewer Painkillers:
Robotic surgery eliminates the need for large incisions, resulting in less postoperative pain, requiring fewer painkillers for patients.
3. Shorter Hospital Stay:
Robotic-assisted procedures lead to a shorter hospitalization time compared to open surgery. In many procedures, patients are discharged on the day of surgery or the following day. Patients recover faster, resume normal physical activities sooner, and experience an easier recovery.
4. Lower Infection Risk:
The risk of infection is reduced in robotic surgery since the abdomen is not opened extensively, and there is less bleeding.
5. Improved Cosmetic Results:
Robotic surgery does not require large incisions in the abdominal wall, and all interventions are performed through 3 or 4 small openings in the abdomen. Thus, patients have fewer scars, contributing to improved cosmetic results.
6. High-Resolution Three-Dimensional Imaging:
While standard laparoscopic images are obtained through a single camera, robotic surgery uses two high-definition cameras during the operation, providing a three-dimensional image with a 10x/12x magnification. Robotic instruments can reach places that cannot be accessed by the surgeon’s hand alone, allowing visualization of structures too small to be seen with the naked eye. This capability enables the surgeon to operate on parts of the abdominal or other cavities that cannot be accessed through open surgery.
7. Greater Range of Motion:
The latest-generation robot has four robotic arms. One controls the camera, and the other three support surgical instruments. The two arms represent the surgeon’s left and right hands. The additional arm performs supplementary tasks, such as tissue separation and retraction, and following the surgical suture. The robot’s end effectors, called EndoWrist, provide seven degrees of freedom in movement and two degrees of axial rotation, mimicking three hand movements and three wrist movements for grasping and cutting. The greater range of motion of these instruments eliminates many challenges encountered in two-dimensional laparoscopic surgical procedures.
8. Filtering Hand Tremors:
Manual movements of the surgeon are scaled and transposed to the robot’s arms through a computerized system. Even the smallest hand tremors are eliminated by this technology. The robotic system filters out tremors larger than 6 Hz, allowing procedures that require high sensitivity to be performed with ease.
