Stereoscopic vision provides a significant advantage for precision robotic laparoscopy.

BACKGROUND: Current surgical robots provide no sense of touch and rely solely upon vision. This study evaluated the effect of new stereoscopic technology on the performance of robotic precision laparoscopy.
METHODS: Eight experienced laparoscopists with no experience in robotics performed five tasks of increasing complexity using a laparoscopic robot. The tasks were as follows: rope pass, paper cut, needle capping, knot tying and needle threading. Each test was performed ten times under both stereoscopic and monoscopic conditions. Performance times and errors were recorded.
RESULTS: Mean(s.e.m.) final performance times were calculated from the final five trial times for each test, and were as follows for monoscopic and stereoscopic conditions respectively: rope pass 112.8(4.2) and 97.0(3.7) s (P = 0.013), paper cut 117.1(6.0) and 98.4(9.8) s (P = 0.020), needle capping 144.5(12.7) and 99.7(6.8) s (P = 0.008), knot tying 138.7(14.3) and 70.3(6.0) s (P = 0.002), and needle threading 210.8(28.2) and 92.3(4.1) s (P = 0.002). The mean(s.e.m.) number of errors per candidate was 60.6(7.8) and 20.8(3.9) under monoscopic and stereoscopic conditions respectively (P = 0.004).
CONCLUSION: Stereoscopic vision provided a significant advantage during robotic laparoscopy in situations that required a precise understanding of structural orientation. Copyright 2004 British Journal of Surgery Society Ltd. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.