Is the Da Vinci Surgical Robot the Right Option For You?
The field of surgical robotics is scarcely a quarter century old. The first surgical procedure carried out robotically was in 1988. Intuitive Surgical introduced the Ilinois da Vinci Surgical Robot five years later. This robot is made up of three components: there is a console behind which the surgeon sits and directs the operation. There is a robotic cart with four arms next to the patient: one arm controls a dual lens camera system and the other three arms manipulate instruments – such as scalpel, bovie, scissors, and electrocautery instruments – under the control of the surgeon. The movements of the surgeon’s hands are filtered by the robot to eliminate hand tremors, and then are translated into micro-motions of the articulating surgical instruments on the robot’s arms. The third component of the system is a high definition three-dimensional viewing system, which provides a stereoscopic picture of the procedure on the surgeon’s console. The surgeon sits at the console and looks thro
