Intuitive Surgical
Integrated Table Motion
For some complex abdominal laparoscopic cases, repositioning
the patient in mid-procedure to let gravity shift and hold the
organs for you can be extremely helpful. If you're performing
these procedures robotically, however, you've had to undock
(then re-dock) the instrument arms whenever you want to move
the table and the patient, which takes up a lot of OR time.
Until now. The creator of the da Vinci surgical robot and surgical
table manufacturer Trumpf Medical have engineered an automated
solution. As a surgeon repositions the TruSystem 7000dV table, it
wirelessly communicates its position to the da Vinci Xi system (pic-
tured right). This lets the robot orient and adjust its instrument
arms, the boom and the scope to stay right where the surgeon left
them, remaining in place in the patient's anatomy. The surgeon can
even work while the table is moving. This economy of movement
stands to save OR time, support surgical techniques and improve
patient safety.
TransEnterix
Surgibot and ALF-X
In surgical robotics, da Vinci is still
the only game in town, though we're
starting to hear about other entries in
the field. TransEnterix is awaiting the
FDA's approval on 2 alternatives, for
which it says costs would be compa-
rable to the da Vinci.
The SurgiBot (pictured opposite page) is a 2-armed, single-port,
tableside system. You stand up at the controls, which are directly
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