Medicaroid robotic assisted surgery system: A feasibility study

The hinotori (TM) surgical robotic system, by Medicaroid (Medicaroid Corporation, Kobe, Japan), is a new robotic system for minimally invasive surgery. We aimed at evaluating its usability and accessibility in a preclinical setting. This was a preclinical feasibility study. Two groups of surgeons, one with three experienced robotic surgeons (group 1) and one with three robotic-surgery naive participants (group 2), performed the following tasks using the hinotori (TM) system in a simulated preclinical setting: console setup, docking, instrument exchange, undocking, and suturing. Each participant repeated each task three times. The time required for performing each repetition and the count of failed repetitions were the primary outcomes of the study. The subjectively perceived workload in performing the tasks, as measured by the NASA-TLX score, was the secondary outcome. The improvement of participants within the three repetitions as well as a comparison between the performances of group 1 and 2 were evaluated. The time required to perform each task decreased with repetitions for both groups, so did the subjective workload score. The time measures required to perform the tasks and the mental effort scores were comparable between the two groups for the console setup, docking, instrument exchange, and undocking tasks. The NASA-TLX score was also comparable between the two groups for the console setup and the emergency undocking tasks and decreased significantly within all tasks after the third repetition. The incidence of failed repetitions was higher in group 2 for the suturing task, however the difference was not statistically significant. The results confirmed the usability of the hinotori (TM) system in a preclinical setting for both highly trained surgeons and nonexperienced operators and its accessibility for both long-time users of other systems and first-time users.