Category Archives: Uncategorized

Imagine a device that can hold an endoscope and move it during an endoscopic procedure, following the surgeon’s verbal commands. That was AESOP (the Automated Endoscopic System for Optimal Positioning), developed by Computer Motion which received FDA clearance in 1993, making it one of the earliest robotic surgical devices cleared by the FDA. So theContinue reading “Do we really need another surgical assistant?”

David Marante, Vice President for UK & Ireland, Italy & Iberia at Intuitive, has announced the arrival of Force Feedback instruments for da Vinci 5 in Europe. The loss of tactile sensation has probably been the most persistent criticism, and one of the earliest concerns, of telemanipulated robotic surgery. I remember discussing it with AkhilContinue reading “Force Feedback finally arrives in the OR (dV5)”

Short answer: it is not. Greater precision and enhanced dexterity are probably the most repeated arguments in the marketing of robotic surgery. But what exactly do we mean by precision? As surgeons, we know something that is sometimes missing from the marketing narrative. The first time you sit at a console (in my case, daContinue reading “Is robotic surgery really more precise than the human hand?”

How strong is the evidence supporting our choice of primary treatment in Head&Neck Cancer? A recent review by Boonen et al. provides an interesting overview of the current clinical trial landscape, identifying 51 trials investigating TORS in head and neck oncology. Yet, despite this growing body of research, obtaining truly high-level evidence to guide theContinue reading “TORS in Head&Neck oncology. The clinical evidence so far.”

What is the difference between a robotic surgery system and a robotic surgical assistant? A robotic surgery system is designed to perform the surgeon’s movements through robotic instruments. The surgeon operates the system, often from a console, and the robot becomes the interface between the surgeon and the patient. A robotic surgical assistant has aContinue reading “Robotic surgical assistants”

Until recently, robotic surgery in Head&Neck was almost synonymous with da Vinci. The vast majority of our clinical experience in Transoral Robotic Surgery (TORS) and remote access to the neck has been developed with successive generations of the da Vinci platform. Intuitive has played a fundamental role in establishing robotic surgery in our specialty, andContinue reading “The landscape of surgical robots for Head&Neck Surgery”

Medtronic has just announced a $700 million investment in Cornerstone Robotics, gaining rights to distribute its Sentire™ surgical system in selected markets outside the US. The official message is clear: Sentire is a “strong complement” to Hugo™, not a replacement. Fair enough. But, if Hugo was the complete answer, why does Medtronic need Sentire? HugoContinue reading “Medtronic’s $700 Million bet on Sentire: a reality check for Hugo?”

A recent demonstration by a Chinese robotic-surgery manufacturer (Edge Medical) in collaboration with the Saudi Ministry of Health has once again put remote telesurgery in the spotlight. Remote telesurgery is certainly impressive. But as a demonstration of what is technically possible, we already know it can be done (since year 2001…). In every place whereContinue reading “Remote surgery: what’s the benefit?”

We are currently witnessing an avalanche of new robotic platforms for soft-tissue surgery. But until recently, robotic surgery was very different. For almost two decades, da Vinci had the market largely to itself. Or almost. In 2017, South Korea’s Meerecompany launched Revo-i, a robotic surgical system that was strikingly similar to the da Vinci Si,Continue reading “Revo-i: the korean robot that challenged da Vinci almost a decade ago”

Over the last few months, I have been adding more and more soft-tissue robotic surgery systems to headneckroboticsurgery.com. There are now 23 robot profiles on the website (see bellow), and the list keeps growing. Robotics is easy to market. Futuristic designs, spectacular videos and AI-generated images (often with limited fidelity to the real technology) canContinue reading “Less marketing. More clinical value.”