Surgeon perception of factors affecting the efficiency of conventional and robotic laparoscopy: A Pan India study

BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic surgery, being minimally invasive, offers many benefits including faster patient recovery, reduced scarring and lower mortality rate. It is, however, technically challenging and requires a long learning curve. These issues can be overcome by Robot-Assisted Surgery (RAS) systems, which incorporate computer-controlled motions enabling enhanced precision and accuracy. METHODS: This study involves identifying and verifying various difficulties related to laparoscopy and the role of RAS in their mitigation. It involved 93 surgeons across India, covering a range of demographics, medical specialties and experience. They were interviewed to understand the current status and to compare RAS with conventional laparoscopy. The questionnaire developed for the purpose tests a set of hypotheses related to instruments, comfort, and other factors derived from the available literature as well as inputs from leading laparoscopy surgeons and domain experts. RESULTS: A grading system was adopted to evaluate the hypotheses based on the surgeons' responses. A statistical method based on T-test was employed to gain useful inferences from the study. The results showed that early-career surgeons preferred haptic enabled systems. As the experience of the surgeon increases, tissue identification becomes easier, thereby reducing the need for haptic feedback-enabled instruments. CONCLUSIONS: The surgeons from across the demographics were strongly in the favour of the need for articulated instruments with surgeon-controlled camera systems. They reported a reduction in physical and mental discomfort during surgical procedures using RAS. They also confirmed the similarity in patient outcomes for both conventional laparoscopy and RAS. These insights are expected to be interesting and useful for further research and development in this field.