Back to the Future: Robotic Microsurgery

Today, robotics has become the gold standard in the operating room for several procedures and surgical specialties. However, microsurgery has not been touched to date other than the limited application of the da Vinci Surgical System, not focused on microanastomosis. Differently from da Vinci, which aims to facilitate minimally invasive procedures by providing improved vision and dexterity to the conventional laparoscopic approach, new microsurgical robots are now designed and being introduced to provide improved precision for anastomosis. Thanks to elimination of tremor and high scaling potential, robotics in microsurgery probably will acquire increasing value as the current trend in submillimetric anastomosis will be confirmed in the clinical practice.