Over the last two decades, minimally invasive surgery (MIS) has emerged as an attractive alternative to traditional open surgical procedures. MIS has been shown to provide excellent surgical outcomes with the added benefit of decreased procedure-related morbidity. Minimal bleeding, reduced blood transfusion rates, shorter hospitalization, and shorter recovery times are all proven advantages for...

Robotic telesurgery is a promising application of robotics to medicine, aiming to enhance the dexterity and sensation of minimally invasive surgery through millimeter-scale manipulators under control of the surgeon. With appropriate communication links, it would also be possible to perform remote surgery for care in rural areas where specialty care is unavailable, or to provide emergency care e...

OBJECTIVE To apply a new television system, which displays highly sensitive, high-quality 3-dimensional (3-D) images, in performing experimental ophthalmic surgeries. METHODS By combining a high-gain avalanche rushing-amorphous photoconductor (HARP) camera, recently developed in Japan, which has 600 times greater sensitivity than conventional television cameras, and a single-camera, 3-D high-...

Robotic telesurgery is a promising application of robotics to medicine, aiming to enhance the dexterity and sensation of regular and minimally invasive surgery through using millimeter-scale robotic manipulators under control of the surgeon. With appropriate communication links, it would also be possible to perform remote surgery for care in rural areas where specialty care is unavailable, or t...

OBJECTIVES Laparoscopic surgery in general is handicapped by the reduction of the range of motion from six to four degrees of freedom. This has a major impact on technically difficult procedures such as laparoscopic radical prostatectomy. Solutions for this problems include the understanding of the geometry of laparoscopy with sophisticated training programs, but lie also in newly developed sur...