A novel microwave tool for robotic liver resection in minimally invasive surgery.

Introduction: During the last two decades, many surgical procedures have evolved from open surgery to minimally invasive surgery (MIS). This limited invasiveness has motivated the development of robotic assistance platforms to obtain better surgical outcomes. Nowadays, the da Vinci robot is a commercial tele-robotic platform widely used for different surgical applications.

Design and realization of a normothermic perfusion system for laboratory tests on pig liver.

Ex vivo testing is a fundamental step in the development of new medical devices; indeed without it, it is impossible to proceed with in vivo tests. At the University of Florence, a robotic tool for microwave thermal ablation is under development. Up to now, the thermoablation tests for the validation of the tool were carried out on non-perfused ex vivo livers, providing results that inevitably differ from those obtainable with an in vivo liver.

A new microwave applicator for laparoscopic and robotic liver resection.

Purpose: Bleeding from parenchyma transection during a robotic hepatic surgery remains the most critical point affecting postoperative recovery and long-term survival. Various robotic devices with different types of energies have been proposed; however, each of these lack in steerability, efficacy, or accuracy. The aim of this work is to evaluate the feasibility and performance of a new steerable microwave resection device intended for minimizing intraoperative blood loss during laparoscopic and robotic liver resections.