Robotic Surgery in Diabetology/Endocrinology

Robotic surgery is a form of a minimally invasive operating technique in which trained doctors instead of making large incisions on the patient, use miniature surgical equipment that can be inserted into the patient’s body through a series of mini or quarter inch incisions to be exact. The world’s most advanced surgical robot known as da Vinci Si is used to perform these surgeries. 

The da Vinci Si is made up of three separate robotic arms on which these miniature instruments are attached. These arms permit the surgeon to have maximum access to the area where the operation is being performed upon, with utmost precision and flexibility. An additional robotic arm is mounted with a high definition 3-D camera that magnifies the entire procedure and guides the surgeon through the entire procedure. 

A console that the surgeon has access to is also located in the operating room, controls the equipment and the high definition camera. With the help of a set of master controls, the surgeon can manoeuvre da Vinci Si’s four robotic arms. At the same time, he can look through a monitor that is stereoscopic and high-definition which basically just places the surgeon inside the patient’s operating area. The 3-D view and images that the monitor provides is light years ahead of what the human eyes can view during a conventional operation. 

The surgeon controls the robotic arms and his instructions are executed with precision by the robot. If there is a need to change the progression and balance of the robot’s movements, the surgeon can do it through the master console. By choosing from a scale of three to one, the surgeon can change the angle and the range of the robot’s arm movements in tandem with the surgeon’s hand movements. The master console has been designed in such a manner that the eyes and hands of the surgeon are always in alignment with his view of the surgical site thereby minimising any occasion of tiredness and fatigue. 

As a patient, it is understandable that you may be concerned about the entire surgical procedure being performed by a robot. At Fortis, we are always happy to discuss the procedure in detail with our patients so that they able to comprehend the benefits of the process. From a patient’s perspective, while it seems that it is the robot performing the operation, in fact, the Robotic Surgical System has been designed so that the control of the robot lies only with the operating surgeon at all times. The surgeon tells the robot what needs to be done, and the robotic arms are just executing the surgeon’s instructions with precision. 

The Robotic Surgical System does not possess the intelligence to make any individual decisions. It can only obey the instructions of the surgeon and follow the hand and finger movements to complete the procedure on the patient.