Telesurgery and Robotics: An Improved and Efficient Era

Abstract

Telesurgery, or remote surgery, is widely known as a master-slave technology. It has achieved a milestone in surgical technology and intervention, providing widespread prospects of operating on a patient in a remote area with increased accuracy and precision. It consists of one or more arms controlled by a surgeon and a master controller in a remote area accessing all the information being transferred via a telecommunication system. This paper reviews the present advancements and their benefits and limitations in the field of telesurgery. A handful of operations have been done so far. However, due to time-lag (latency), global networking problems, legal issues and skepticism, and on top of the cost of robotic systems and their affordability have led to the concept of telerobotics and surgery to lag. However, with more information and high speed, 5G networking, which has been in a trial to reduce latency to its minimum, is beneficial. Haptic feedback technology in telesurgery and robotics is another achievement that can be improved; further, this allows the robotic arms to mimic the natural hand movements of the surgeon in the control center so that the master controller can perform surgeries with more dexterity and acuity. Due to coronavirus (COVID-19), this type of surgery approach can reduce the probability of contracting the virus, saving more lives and the future.

Reappraisal of Tele-Surgery in the Era of High-Speed, High-Bandwidth, Secure Communications: Evaluation of Surgical Performance in Local/Remote Environments

“…In Japan, a shortage of surgeons in rural areas exists due to the unequal distribution of doctors between urban and rural areas and the overall decrease in the number of surgeons. Telerobotic surgery is expected to provide an opportunity for young surgeons to work in rural areas, as it enables them to engage in local medical care in rural areas while providing surgical education and support for their supervisors at core hospitals 1,23 . In this environment, there are high expectations for telerobotic surgery, and early social implementation is required.…”

Telemedicine Applications in the Era of COVID-19: Telesurgery Issues

“…Due to technological development and the pandemic situation, Telemedicine has spread rapidly, allowing increased access to care. In addition, Telesurgery can help with surgical procedures performed in the current pandemic: minimizing surgical staff in operating rooms has allowed the risk of COVID-19 infection to be lowered [ 53 ]. The use of these new technologies has brought to light several issues, including legal ones.…”

Foreseeable challenges in developing telesurgery for low income and middle-income countries

“…Telesurgery might just be the solution to this problem by mitigating distance between the surgeons and patients. 5,6 Hence surgery can be done at the nearest local hospital with minimal distance travelled.…”

“…This also eliminates the risk and cost endured by surgeons travelling to remote areas. 6,8 Complex surgical diseases are too often neglected in LMIC due to lack of multidisciplinary expertise. With telesurgery more than one surgeon can operate on a single patient at real-time simultaneously regardless of their location.…”

“…Hence telesurgery encourages sharing of expertise between experts from all corners of the world with surgeons from LMIC. 6,8…”