Abstract
Gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) is the most common esophageal disorder. Although GERD is an illness primarily treated by medical management, patients refractory to, or those unwilling to endure long-term medical therapy often undergo anti-reflux surgery. Laparoscopic surgery made the surgeon's task technically more challenging. While laparoscopy provides a good field of vision, all depth perception is lost. Furthermore, the movements of the chopstick-like instruments are counter-intuitive with limited degrees of freedom, diminished tactile feedback, and dis-associated movement. Now that advanced minimally invasive surgeons have acquired the necessary skills to overcome these hurdles, technology has developed a way to make laparoscopic surgery easier. The latest advance in laparoscopic surgery is computer-assisted telesurgery (CATS) which allows the surgeon to be seamlessly submerged into the surgical field while being seated at a distance from the patient. The technological advances afforded by CATS make minimally-invasive surgery easier by adding stereoscopic vision, which provides depth perception, and the endo-wrist, which provides wrist-like dexterity within the abdominal cavity. The advantages of CATS are: the ergonomic positioning of the surgeon thus decreasing fatigue; stereoscopic vision with possibility of 10x magnification; wrist-like manual dexterity with intuitive motion; motion-scaling and tremor elimination all of which enhance precision and accuracy. A small yet growing body of evidence has provided information which suggests that the use of CATS for anti-reflux surgery is equivalent to the current gold standard, unassisted laparoscopy.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 417-425 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Minerva chirurgica |
Volume | 59 |
Issue number | 5 |
State | Published - Oct 2004 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Antireflux surgery
- Gastroesophageal reflux disease, surgery
- Surgery
- Telemedicine
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Surgery