Reducing Degrees of Freedom in Surgical Suturing: Implications for Minimally Invasive Device Development-A Prospective Experimental Study.

Open surgery allows the use of all 6 degrees of freedom (DOF; x-y-z and roll-pitch-yaw), whereas laparoscopy requires working under limitation to 4 axes. We present a prospective experimental study evaluating translational and rotational DOF restriction in surgical suturing tasks. An experimental platform included a kinematic structure that limited the maneuverability of the surgical instruments.

Detection of adverse events leading to inadvertent injury during laparoscopic cholecystectomy using convolutional neural networks.

Uncontrolled movements of laparoscopic instruments can lead to inadvertent injury of adjacent structures. The risk becomes evident when the dissecting instrument is located outside the field of view of the laparoscopic camera. Technical solutions to ensure patient safety are appreciated.

Thinking About Pathomechanisms and Current Treatment of Erectile Dysfunction-"The Stanley Beamish Problem." Review, Recommendations, and Proposals.

Introduction: Up to 50% of all men over 50 years of age suffer from erectile dysfunction. Since the late 1990s erectile dysfunction has been treated mostly with phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitors (PDE5I). Over the past 20 years, numerous scientific findings on the development of erectile dysfunction have been collected, which have so far received little attention in the treatment of erectile dysfunction.

Impact of haptic feedback on applied intracorporeal forces using a novel surgical robotic system-a randomized cross-over study with novices in an experimental setup.

Background: Most currently used surgical robots have no force feedback; the next generation displays forces visually. A novel single-port robotic surgical system called FLEXMIN has been developed. Through an outer diameter of 38 mm, two instruments are teleoperated from a surgeon's control console including true haptic force feedback.

Learning curves, potential and speed in training of laparoscopic skills: a randomised comparative study in a box trainer.

Background: The effectiveness of practical surgical training is characterised by an inherent learning curve. Decisive are individual initial starting capabilities, learning speed, ideal learning plateaus, and resulting learning potentials. The quantification of learning curves requires reproducible tasks with varied levels of difficulty.