Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Bilateral Axillo-Breast Approach (BABA) has become one of the most established remote-access techniques for robotic thyroid and parathyroid surgery. First introduced in 2007 as an evolution of the earlier ABBA technique, BABA combines excellent cosmetic results with a surgical view that closely reproduces conventional open thyroidectomy, making it one of the most intuitive roboticContinue reading “Bilateral Axillo-Breast Approach (BABA). A comprehensive guide by Hyeong Won Yu”

The arrival of several new soft tissue robotic systems has transformed the market into one where different engineering philosophies compete to solve the same surgical problems. Interestingly, the differences between these systems are no longer limited to marketing or incremental improvements. Instead, manufacturers are making fundamentally different choices about how a surgical robot should beContinue reading “Soft-tissue robotic surgery: understanding the different engineering philosophies”

Japan’s surgical robot arrives in Europe. Another important milestone in the rapidly evolving robotic surgery landscape. Medicaroid Europe GmbH announced yesterday that the hinotori™ Surgical Robot System has received CE mark approval, opening the door to its clinical commercialization across Europe. The approval follows the company’s MDR submission in 2025 and represents the first EuropeanContinue reading “hinotori gets CE mark”

En abril de 2015, la Agencia Española de Medicamentos y Productos Sanitarios (AEMPS) publicó una nota informativa para aclarar una confusión que empezaba a hacerse frecuente: la diferencia entre un audífono y un amplificador de sonido. La advertencia respondía a la proliferación de dispositivos electrónicos que se comercializaban como “audífonos” cuando, en realidad, no loContinue reading “¿Qué diferencias hay entre un audífono y un auricular?”

I just had a Zoom talk with Ethan Wilke, Jain Aabhas and Alejandro Chara, a research team from Vanderbilt university (https://www.medicalengineeringlab.com/), Nashville, Tennessee. They are working on a project in the frame of NIH sponsored research. Their latest work focuses on what is known as needlescopic robots. Needlescopic surgery is generally defined as the useContinue reading “Thinking small: needlescopic robots”

I feel particularly privileged to have access to the new da Vinci 5 in both hospitals where I perform robotic surgery in Madrid (there are only 5 devices in the country right now). So, what was my first clinical impression? Oddly enough, it took me back almost a decade. “Transoral” has disappeared from the touchscreenContinue reading “The da Vinci 5 era begins… TORS first impressions”

Mediflex ENTrac retraction system (mediflex.com) Mediflex retractors (headneckroboticsurgery.com)

On December 17, 2025, I had the privilege of unpacking the first da Vinci surgical robot to arrive in Spain, at Hospital Universitario Rey Juan Carlos. Today, I found myself opening the fifth da Vinci 5 system to arrive in Spain, now at HLA Hospital HLA Universitario Moncloa. I feel incredibly fortunate to have beenContinue reading “Unpacking da Vinci 5… again”

In recent days, the Esther Koplowitz Foundation has highlighted the 20th anniversary of robotic surgery at Hospital Clínico San Carlos in Madrid. A robotic surgical system is an extraordinarily expensive piece of equipment for any hospital. Yet there are different ways to make such technology available to patients. One of them is philanthropy. I haveContinue reading “Twenty years of robotic surgery at Hospital Clínico San Carlos: a celebration and a reminder”

Last week, during the annual meeting of the Asociación Madrileña de Otorrinolaringología (AMORL), the new monograph Artificial Intelligence in Otolaryngology: from the basics to the clinic was presented. We were honored to contribute a chapter on one of the most exciting and disruptive topics in modern surgery: autonomous robotic surgery. For decades, surgical robots haveContinue reading “AI in Otolaryngology-Head&Neck Surgery”