A Review of Robotic Surgery: Engineering Considerations and Future Directions From Surgeons' Perspectives

INTRODUCTION: Since its initial inception, robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgery (RAMIS) is continually being applied to a wider array of procedures. However, there are significant limitations in current surgical subsystems, including a large learning curve, lack of effective haptic feedback, decreased surgical intuition, and decreased dexterity. METHODS: A narrative review of the literature was conducted to provide an overview of key developments in the field. Relevant articles were identified through searches of PubMed, IEEE, Google Scholar, and EMBASE, along with manual screening of references. RESULTS: A selection of representative articles covering topics including teleoperation, kinematics, dynamics, and haptic feedback is discussed to highlight major themes and recent advances. CONCLUSIONS: Despite recent advances, limitations to operator experience remain. Numerous strategies and approaches are currently being proposed and explored to further advance surgical subsystems, improving dexterity, haptic feedback, movement time delay, and learning curve.