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Scientific articles

Potential Contenders for the Leadership in Robotic Surgery

By 26 October 2021No Comments

Rui Farinha, Stefano Puliatti, Elio Mazzone, Marco Amato, Giuseppe Rosiello, Siddharth Yadav, Ruben De Groote, Pietro Piazza, Carlo Andrea Bravi, Periklis Koukourikis, Koon Ho Rha, Giovanni Cacciamani, Salvatore Micali, Peter Wiklund, Bernardo Rocco, Alexandre Mottrie

Abstract

Purpose: To summarize the scientific published literature on new robotic surgical platforms with potential use in the urological field, reviewing their evolution from presentation until the present day. Our goal is to describe the current characteristics and possible prospects for these platforms.

Materials and Methods: A nonsystematic search of the PubMed, Cochrane library’s Central, EMBASE, MEDLINE, and Scopus databases was conducted to identify scientific literature about new robotic platforms other than the Da Vinci® system, reviewing their evolution from inception until December 2020. Only English language publications were included. The following keywords were used: “new robotic platforms,” “Revo-I robot,” “Versius robot,” and “Senhance robot.” All relevant English-language original studies were analyzed by one author (R.F.) and summarized after discussion with an independent third party (E.M., S.Y., S.P., and M.A.).

Results: Since 1995, Intuitive Surgical, Inc., with the Da Vinci surgical system, is the leading company in the robotic surgical market. However, Revo-I®, Versius®, and Senhance® are the other three platforms that recently appeared on the market with available articles published in peer-reviewed journals. Among these three new surgical systems, the Senhance robot has the most substantial scientific proof of its capacity to perform minimally invasive urological surgery and as such, it might become a contender of the Da Vinci robot.

Conclusions: The Da Vinci surgical platform has allowed the diffusion of robotic surgery worldwide and showed the different advantages of this type of technique. However, its use has some drawbacks, especially its price. New robotic platforms characterized by unique features are under development. Of note, they might be less expensive compared with the Da Vinci robotic system. We found that these new platforms are still at the beginning of their technical and scientific validation. However, the Senhance robot is in a more advanced stage, with clinical studies supporting its full implementation.

Keywords: Revo-I robot; Senhance robot; Verisus robot; new robotic platform; robotic surgery.

Stefano Puliatti

Stefano Puliatti

Il Dr. Puliatti si è laureato in Medicina e chirurgia nel 2012 presso l’Università degli Studi di Modena ed ha poi conseguito il titolo di specialista in Urologia con il massimo dei voti presso lo stesso Ateneo. Da Luglio 2019 ricopre il ruolo di Assistant Professor in Urologia presso l'Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia. Da Luglio 2019 ricopre anche il ruolo di Deputy Medical Director of ORSI Academy, Melle, Belgio e svolge attività clinica e chirurgica presso OLV (Onze Lieve Vrouwziekenhuis) Hospital in Aalst, Belgio (direttore: Prof. Alex Mottrie). La sua formazione si è incentrata in particolare sulla Chirurgia robotica e oncologica delle vie urinarie, avendo come principali campi di applicazione anche tumori e malattie della prostata, tumori del rene e delle alte vie urinarie, disturbi minzionali, calcolosi delle vie urinarie. È inoltre autore e coautore di articoli scientifici e capitoli di libro in ambito urologico. Attualmente svolge attività in libera professione presso diverse strutture situate a Modena e Provincia.