Robotic surgery is not performed by a robot, but by a surgeon sitting at a console, placing a finger in a corresponding “finger sleeve” and manipulating the tip of the arm “remotely” through a control handle.
The movements of the surgeon’s hand are “filtered and shaken” by the computer system and then scaled into finer operations, with the 3D high-definition camera zooming in on the field of view, freeing the surgeon’s hands and eyes to the maximum. The arm can also perform movements beyond the physiological limits of the human hand, like an “octopus”, and is more flexible, making it ideal for fine manipulation in the small space of the pelvis.
The da Vinci robotic surgery system has been introduced in many hospitals in China, and robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical prostate cancer surgery is widely performed.