robotics+in+the+future

Medical robotic surgical systems certainly will not be used for every type of surgical procedure, or on every patient. The extra cost of the system, instruments, disposable supplies, and personnel costs necessitate that medical robotic applications be carefully evaluated with respect to patient outcomes. Current medical robotic users are developing their skills, and searching for surgical procedures that have increased patient benefits such as increased surgical accuracy, decreased operating times, shorter hospital stays, and fewer complication rates when compared to the standard current surgical approaches. Medical robotics is a growing and developing technology that will undergo many changes as its use evolves and is refined. Many institutions are currently attempting to add a "fourth arm" to their robotic surgical systems. In addition to the two robotic arms that hold and manipulate the surgical instruments that perform surgery, and a third robotic arm that holds and manipulates the telescope/camera that provides for visualization inside the patient, this fourth arm would provide the operating surgeon with a third arm which can hold an instrument to retract patient tissues or a suture. This provides the operating surgeon with more flexibility in maneuvering patient tissues to access the surgical site, without depending on the assistance of the patient-side surgeon; and it enables the operating surgeon more accuracy in retracting, and can also sometimes decrease operating times. In the future, two surgeons will be able to control robotic arms on the same system, and swap with each other what arm they control. This will allow the assistant surgeon the same three-dimensional view and seven degrees of freedom of movement to the operating instruments being used (Ballantyne & Moll, 2003). Also, training simulators using virtual reality technology will be available to enable the surgeon to develop basic skills for use with robotic surgical systems, as well as practice a certain procedure on a computer-generated image of a particular patient's anatomy before actually performing the procedure in the operating room (Ballantyne & Moll, 2003; Lemke et al., 2002). Development of a three-dimensional capable "image shift" endoscope is underway. This endoscope system will allow a surgeon to go from a magnified view of specific anatomy, to a wide-angle view of the whole surgical field, without moving the telescope (Lemke et al., 2002). It will also increase patient safety by enabling the surgeon to easily and quickly visualize the whole surgical field, while maintaining a more accurate ability for the surgeon to visualize specific anatomy better than with the human eye. Additionally, the development of haptic and force feedback technology will allow surgeons to experience tactile and pressure sensation feedback in their hands, which is not possible with robotic surgical systems currently in use (Lemke et al., 2002). Finally, the U.S. military has designed and field tested a new transport system called Life Support for Trauma and Transport (LSTAT) (Hudson & Grimes, 2002). LSTAT is essentially a mobile intensive care monitoring system incorporated into a transport bed that is being tested for use on a battlefield. Commercial applications may be found for this system in the future, in high-tech operating rooms where the patient is placed on an LSTAT at the beginning of his hospital stay, and travel from the operating room to recovery or an intensive care unit on the same bed