Design and Evaluation of an Intraoperative Safety Constraints Definition and Enforcement System for Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery

INTRODUCTION Most of the studies and progresses in surgery have focused on minimizing the invasiveness of surgical procedures. In the last decades, there has been a significant methodological shift in several surgical procedures: surgeons do not directly see and, especially, do not directly touch the anatomical structures on which they operate. In fact, advances in video imaging, endoscopic technology and robotic instrumentation have made a definite transition from open to minimally invasive surgery possible [1]. However, surgical robots are still tele-operatively controlled by the healthcare professional and the human error remains considerably high. In minimally invasive surgery, even when performed with a robotic device, the most common complication is accidental damage to nerves, veins and arteries [2]. This may cause dysfunctions, heavy bleeding and affect the outcomes of the surgical procedure. To address this issue, we developed and tested a system for the intraoperative definition of safety constraints which generates a repulsive force on the robotic tool when it tries to enter the constrained region.