[Thoracoscopic surgery using voice controlled robot for spontaneous pneumothorax].

ABSTRACT

We investigated the feasibility and applicability of using voice controlled robot-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for spontaneous pneumothorax. Eleven patients with spontaneous pneumothorax were involved in this study. Five patients were treated by voice controlled robot-assisted thoracoscopic procedure and 6 by historical human-assisted thoracoscopic procedure. All procedures were successfully completed without complications. The number of times the thoracoscope required cleaning per 60-minute interval for cases involving voice controlled robot-assisted surgery were 1.4 compared to 8 per 60-minute interval for comparable cases when the robot was not used. Operative times, the amount of analgesics, the duration of indwelling chest tube, the number of recurrences after operation during thoracoscopic procedures were not statistically different. We found that use of voice-controlled robot as surgical assistant during thoracoscopic surgery for spontaneous pneumothorax is feasible.