Transoral Robotic Surgery (TORS) Emulation Using a Highly Flexible Robotic System

The gap between the progress of transoral robotic surgery (TORS) adoption and training, has encouraged the industry to develop a variety of multiple-scenario endoscopic procedures without the need of a physical environment, in other words, surgical simulation platforms. Consequently, the authors aimed at developing the initial form of a virtual platform for the reproduction of TORSs, by embedding a highly flexible robotic manipulator, in a patient’s head and neck three-dimensional (3D) model, acquired from Computed Tomography (CT) images, to simulate a surgery. This platform intents to provide experienced and inexperienced surgeons and medical students a way of pre-planning, replaying, or practicing a surgery, outside the operating room (OR). This platform is developed in C++ under the Windows operating system using the MobileBody SDK simulation system, using two C++ program libraries, Open Inventor and Mobile. At this stage, the virtual system developed provides a total visualization of the patient’s head and neck anatomy, in different perspectives (different camera views), and provides all the movements possible of the robotic system, as in reality. This training tool will allow a proper placement of the robot with the shortest path possible, significantly influencing the success of the operation. Also, this platform, can be efficient as an educational tool for medical students and doctors who are inexperienced in TORSs.