Urology Robotics, or URobotics, is a new interdisciplinary field for the application of robots in urology and for the development of such systems and novel technologies in this clinical discipline. Urology is among the medical fields with the highest rate of technology advances, which for several years has included the use medical robots.

Applications

The first surgical robot approved by the FDA is the

da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...

system. Even though this was designed to assist in general Laparoscopy, most of its application are in the urology field for

radical prostatectomy Prostatectomy (from the Greek , "prostate" and , "excision") as a medical term refers to the surgical removal of all or part of the prostate gland. This operation is done for benign conditions that cause urinary retention, as well as for prosta ...

. Pioneered at the

Vattikuti Urology Institute The Vattikuti Urology Institute (VUI) at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, is a clinical and research center for urological care. It is known for being the first institute to implement robotic surgery as a type of treatment for patie ...

, robotic radical prostatectomy has now become the gold standard for the treatment of prostate cancer. Other, URobotic systems are under development. These include image-guided robots that, in addition to the direct visual feedback, use medical images for guiding the intervention. Since MRI provides enhanced visualization of soft-tissues compared to

x-ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...

-based imaging, MRI compatible robots are being developed to assist the physician in performing the interventio
in the MRI scanner
If prostate cancer lesions can be delineated in the image, robots can accurately target those lesions for

biopsy A biopsy is a medical test commonly performed by a surgeon, interventional radiologist, or an interventional cardiologist. The process involves extraction of sample cells or tissues for examination to determine the presence or extent of a diseas ...

or focal ablations.

References

Urology Medical robotics {{med-tech-stub