ROBOTIC PERCUTANEOUS PROCEDURE

In this webminar the difficulties of percutaneous procedures will be addressed, which are, a valid alternative to surgical procedures because of their lower incidence of collateral damages to patients and their reduced, or null, need of post-intervention hospitalisation.

Percutaneous procedures are of great relevance in the treatment of early-stage cancer, since they permit to perform focal interventions on the tumor, without affecting nearby structures and often without full anesthesia. As surgical interventions, percutaneous procedures rely on the human operators’ skills: perception and cognition to identify the cancer lesion, and manual dexterity to reach it with an energy delivery device.

In the case of extended cancer, complex surgeries are necessary to avoid further spread of the disease. Surgical robots have been developed to address these cases, by improving human skills and let surgeons perform at their best. Surgical robots are now standard tools in the operating room (of wealthy institutions).

Percutaneous procedures have not yet received the attention of medical device manufacturers, and these procedures are still affected by frequent errors and carried out only by very skilled physicians.

It will be described the exemplary case of prostate cancer treatment, and show how the cognitive/perceptual support provided by AI algorithms and the manual support given by robotic devices could significantly improve the therapy choices of many patients.

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