BackgroundTelesurgery involves a remote surgeon operating on patient over distance using the internet to control surgical robot. Telesurgery could allow rural patients more equitable access lifesaving specialty procedures such as cardiac catheter ablation. Advances in telehealth adoption and robotics are lowering conceptual technical hurdles for this future method of healthcare delivery. Despit...

Clear benefits of telesurgery on traditional mini-invasive surgery include the 3D vision, an ergonomic system with several hand motion degrees of freedom, and consequently a favorable learning curve. The disadvantages are represented by costs, the absence of haptic (tactile) feedback, and the effectiveness and safeness of data transmission. The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at ...

Teleradiology is largely and successfully implemented all over the world. Videoconferencing, telemedical education, teleconsultations, teleradiology, telesurgery and telepresence during surgical procedures are just some of the many telemedical applications in use today. The TeleOrto Centre of Excellence in Warsaw, Poland, not only applies telediagnostic and teleeducational technologies, but als...

Minimally invasive robotic surgery (MIRS) entails total absence of haptic feedback due to the spatial separation of patient and surgeon. In conventional surgery, however, palpation to detect superficial arteries by a slight pulsation is an important, commonly applied, and security-relevant procedure. Therefore, an ultrasound based unidirectional sensor for MIRS was developed feeding back kinest...

In comparison to open surgery, laparoscopy results in less postoperative pain, shorter hospitalization, more rapid return to the work force, a better cosmetic result, and a lower incidence of postoperative intra-abdominal adhesions. These advantages are indisputable when comparing large series for cholecystectomy and smaller series for pelvic lymph node dissection, nephrectomy, and bladder neck...

fi c apid technological developments and global communication in the past two decades have evolutionized the surgical sciences. Advances in ptics and instrumentation encouraged a leap from raditional open operating techniques to the minially invasive surgeries of today. Urology has been t the forefront of these innovations, introducing ndourologic techniques into everyday practice to reat a myr...

Softness is an important source of information when interacting with remote or virtual environments (VE) via a haptic human-machine-interface. For example, in telesurgery where the surgeon operates a human-machine interface transmitting his/her actions to a robot performing actions inside the human body, tissue softness can indicate a healthy or non-healthy condition (De Gersem, 2005). Humans h...