Abstract
The Da Vinci robotic system has revolutionized urologic laparoscopic surgery since its inception at the beginning of this century. However, it shifted the main surgeon away from the patient tableside, mandating the presence of another person who would scrub and serve as assistant by the patient’s side. The bedside assistant acts as the robotic console surgeon’s link to the patient and assumes critical roles during surgery, such as insufflation and trocar placement, robot docking, instrument exchange, giving and grabbing the needle, manipulation of laparoscopic instruments, suction and irrigation in order to maintain visibility by clearing the surgical field of blood, specimen extraction, clip or hem-o-lock application, and troubleshooting and fine-tuning of robotic instruments. Cooperation and harmony between the console surgeon (CS) and the bedside assistant (BA) are fundamental to avoid time loss and prevent misunderstandings and mistakes. In this chapter, we focus on technical details that facilitate a safe surgery and efficient communication between the CS and the BA, and review the impact of the BA experience on surgical outcomes based on contemporary literature data.
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Onol, F.F., Sivaraman, A., Andrich, J. (2022). The Role of Bedside Assistant in Robotic Urological Surgery. In: Wiklund, P., Mottrie, A., Gundeti, M.S., Patel, V. (eds) Robotic Urologic Surgery. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-00363-9_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-00363-9_6
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