Surgical robots such as the Da-Vinci-XI® system from Intuitive Surgical enable surgeons to perform complex minimally invasive operations at a control console. The interdisciplinary research project »Robotic Operations« is the first to investigate the effects of these systems on the working conditions of surgeons.

High-resolution stereoscopic images are streamed in real time from inside the patient’s body to a binocular at the control console. Control arms on the console record the hand movements of the surgeon and transmit them to the instrument attachments in the operating field. In this project innovative measurement and analysis methods are used to record the the surgeons’ postures and ergonomic requirements together with their stress level and the noise level in the operating room. The subsequent synchronization of the data and a comparison with standardized open surgery will be used to draw conclusions about the workload of surgeons using teleoperation systems.

Professors
Prof. Dr. Carolin Höfler, TH Köln and Prof. Dr. Christiane Bruns, University Hospital Cologne

Other Involved Scientists
Priv.-Doz. Dr. med. Hans F. Fuchs, Dr. med. Dolores Thea Müller, Dr. med. Benjamin Babic, Dr. med. Rabi Datta, Dr. med. Justus Toader, Dr. med. Leandra Börner-Valdez, Christian Storms, Alissa Reisewitz, Julia Poggemeier, University Hospital Cologne and Juliane Ahn, TH Köln

Project Partners
University Hospital Cologne, Department and Polyclinic for General, Visceral, Tumor and Transplant Surgery

Funded by
RheinEnergie Foundation

Duration
01.01.2022 – 30.09.2023

Press Release TH Köln & University of Cologne
»Forschungsteam untersucht Arbeitsbedingungen an OP-Robotern«

Publication 
Article from Dr. Michael Lang in the journal kma – Klinik Management aktuell (Thieme-Verlag) about »Robotic Operations«: Lang, Michael: »Arbeitsplatzergonomie: Operieren mit dem Roboter«,  in: kma – Klinik Management aktuell 27/11, 2022, S. 86–88. DOI: 10.1055/s-0042-1758617

Bild: »Screen Spaces. An Interdisciplinary Research Project About The Perception of Space Using Surgical Robots« by Juliane Ahn