Surgical robotics. Evaluation of the Computer Motion AESOP 3000 robotic endoscope holder.

The use of robots to manipulate surgical instruments inside the patient has already moved from the world of fiction to fact. While the widespread use of full-function surgical robots is still many years away, less sophisticated robots that perform very specific surgical functions are already at a stage where the typical hospital can consider their use. Currently, the most affordable and commonly used type of "surgical-assist" robot is the robotic endoscope holder, which is used to hold and position rigid endoscopes during minimally invasive surgery. In this study, we introduce readers to the topic of surgical robotics, focusing specifically on robotic endoscope holders. The study includes a Technology Management Guide, in which we discuss who should and who shouldn't consider implementing such robots, and it includes our evaluation protocol and findings for one such robot, the Computer Motion AESOP 3000. We judged the evaluated system based on its performance relative to the human scope holders it is designed to replace, as well as its safety and ease of use. While we found the AESOP 3000 to be an acceptable, and sometimes preferred, alternative to the use of a human scope holder, we caution that many healthcare facilities won't see sufficient clinical benefit to warrant its purchase at this time.