Robotic surgery in gynecology

Excerpt

In Gynecology, minimally invasive surgery is present in more than 70 %. Advantages of laparoscopy in comparison to laparotomy are the small incisions, a better wound healing, less blood loss, earlier convalescence and a shorter hospital stay. Especially, elderly and multi-morbid oncologic patients with a higher risk for surgery profit from laparoscopic surgery, but conventional laparoscopy has limitations. To perform complex laparoscopic surgeries, high practical experience is necessary with a long learning curve. Duration of surgeries is often longer and performance can be exhausting using unhandy instruments. Because of only three degrees of freedom resulting in constricted mobility of the instruments, some surgical steps especially in very obese patients are not sufficiently possible. In these situations, computer- and robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery with four computer-assisted surgical arms is an innovation in Gynecology and in Gynecologic Oncology. The tridimensional view and the nearby unlimited mobility of the robotic instruments correspondent to the open human hand are the out-standing benefits of this technique. …