Challenge / Solution
One challenge with the da Vinci system is that some patients complain of burns after surgery. As with any surgery, there are complications and risks. Robotic surgery cuts down by a large margin the risks of infection and blood loss, as well as iatrogenic complications, injury to the body from the surgeons or the hospital (an example would be trauma to the body from a cut that is too large).
How can the Da Vinci system be improved to reduce the risk of postoperative burns?
The camera located on the first arm is heated to prevent it from fogging up the lens during the operation. This can cause burns both inside and outside the body.
Our challenge is finding out a way to stop this from happening.
One of our ideas is to cool the skin around the cut several times during the operation to prevent burns. A fifth arm on the Da Vinci system could follow the others and spray cold air on the patient’s skin.
Another of our ideas is to find a different way to keep the camera from fogging.
Fog can build up on a lens after a sudden change of climate and/or temperature. This could be done by keeping the lens in the same atmospheric conditions as the operating room, or by heating or cooling the patient slightly to roughly the room temperature and keeping the humidity level consistent in the operating room.
These changes could keep the lens clear without giving patients burns.