Workshop on Safety in Robotic Surgery

This workshops aims at summarizing the results and on going discussions within some of the EUfunded projects in robotic surgery, such as SAFROS, STIFF-FLOP, Active and micro-Ralp. Although patient safety in all types of surgery seems an obvious concept, the close examination of patient safety in the specific case of robotic surgery raises a number of concerns. The validity of these concerns is demonstrated by the steady growth of lawsuits brought against the manufacturer of surgical robots by patients injured during robot-assisted procedures. Safety in surgical procedures involving high technology devices is a system issue that cannot be solved by optimizing only one, or few, elements involved in the procedure. The optimal balance may be achieved by a combination of factors, including technology management, training, logistics, and concentration of robotic procedures into centers of excellence.