Evaluating a Novel 3D Stereoscopic Visual Display for Transanal Endoscopic Surgery: A Randomized Controlled Crossover Study

Frontiers of Medical Robotics: From Concept to Systems to Clinical Translation

Medical robotics is poised to transform all aspects of medicine—from surgical intervention to targeted therapy, rehabilitation, and hospital automation. A key area is the development of robots for minimally invasive interventions. This review provides a detailed analysis of the evolution of interventional robots and discusses how the integration of imaging, sensing, and robotics can influence the patient care pathway toward precision intervention and patient-specific treatment. It outlines how closer coupling of perception, decision, and action can lead to enhanced dexterity, greater precision, and reduced invasiveness. It provides a critical analysis of some of the key interventional robot platforms developed over the years and their relative merit and intrinsic limitations. The review also presents a future outlook for robotic interventions and emerging trends in making them easier to use, lightweight, ergonomic, and intelligent, and thus smarter, safer, and more accessible for clinical use.

Intraoperative ultrasound for improved 3D tumour reconstruction in robot-assisted surgery: An evaluation of feedback modalities

BACKGROUND

Intraoperative ultrasound scanning induces deformation on the tissue in the absence of a feedback modality, which results in a 3D tumour reconstruction that is not directly representative of real anatomy.

METHODS

A biomechanical model with different feedback modalities (haptic, visual, or auditory) was implemented in a simulation environment. A user study with 20 clinicians was performed to assess which modality resulted in the 3D tumour volume reconstruction that most resembled the reference configuration from the respective computed tomography (CT) scans.

RESULTS

Integrating a feedback modality significantly improved the scanning performance across all participants and data sets. The optimal feedback modality to adopt varied depending on the evaluation. Nonetheless, using guidance with feedback is always preferred compared with none.

CONCLUSIONS

The results demonstrated the urgency to integrate a feedback modality framework into clinical practice, to ensure an improved scanning performance. Furthermore, this framework enabled an evaluation that cannot be performed in vivo.

[Minimally invasive approaches for transanal surgery]

Since the introduction of transanal endoscopic microsurgery (TEM) in the 1980 s, the minimally invasive transanal approach has been a treatment option for selected patients with colorectal diseases. Recently, transanal minimally invasive surgery (TAMIS) was introduced as an alternative technique. TAMIS is a hybrid between TEM and single-port laparoscopy and was followed by introduction of transanal total mesorectal excision (TaTME). Although the TaTME experience remains preliminary, it appears to be an attractive minimally invasive procedure for carefully selected patients with resectable rectal cancer. The objective of this review is to describe the latest technologies which enhanced progress of minimally invasive transanal approaches for endo- and extraluminal surgery in this area of colorectal surgery.