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Robot-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery: Pros and Cons

  • Thoracic Surgery (G. Rocco and M. Scarci, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

In the last two decades, minimally invasive approaches for thoracic surgery have become the major challenge in the field of thoracic surgery. These techniques became preferable over open surgery (thoracotomy) in terms of reducing pain and having aesthetic advantages. However, patient selection is one of the most important factors for minimally invasive surgery because of related limitations and insufficiency of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS).

Recent Findings

Robot-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (RATS) has been developed to overcome the limitations of VATS. Better flexibility and transmission the surgeon’s convenient manoeuvrability in the thoracic cavity are some of the advantages of robotic surgery.

Summary

This paper focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of RATS in comparison to that of VATS and thoracotomy.

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Correspondence to Tugba Cosgun.

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This article is part of the Topical collection on Thoracic Surgery.

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Cosgun, T., Kaba, E., Ayalp, K. et al. Robot-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery: Pros and Cons. Curr Surg Rep 5, 27 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40137-017-0192-3

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