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Genova et al. Mini-invasive Surg 2020;4:2 Mini-invasive Surgery
DOI: 10.20517/2574-1225.2019.30

Review Open Access

Milestones in robotic colorectal surgery
development: an historical overview

Pietro Genova , Gianni Pantuso , Solafah Abdalla , Riccardo Memeo , Federica Gaiani , Paschalis
4
3
1
1
2
Gavriilidis , Nicola de’Angelis 6
5
1 Department of General and Oncological Surgery, Paolo Giaccone University Hospital, University of Palermo, 90127 Palermo
(PA), Italy.
2 Department of Digestive Surgery and Surgical Oncology, Bicêtre University Hospital, Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris,
Université Paris-Sud, 78 Rue du Général Leclerc, Le Kremlin Bicêtre 94275, France.
3 Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation, Institute of General Surgery and Liver Transplantation, University of
Bari, 70124 Bari (BA) Italy.
4 Gastroenterology and Endoscopy Unit, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, PR Gastroenterology and
Endoscopy Unit, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, PR IT-43124, Italy.
5 Department of Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary and Liver Transplant Surgery, Queen Elizabeth University Hospitals Birmingham
NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham B15 2TH, UK.
6 Department of Digestive and Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Surgery, Henri Mondor University Hospital, AP-HP, Université Paris-
Est Créteil (UPEC), 51 Avenue du Maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny, Créteil 94010, France.
Correspondence to: Dr. Pietro Genova, Department of General and Oncological Surgery, Paolo Giaccone University Hospital,
University of Palermo, Via del Vespro 129, 90127 Palermo (PA), Italy. E-mail: pietro.genova@gmail.com
How to cite this article: Genova P, Pantuso G, Abdalla S, Memeo R, Gaiani F, Gavriilidis P, de’Angelis N. Milestones in robotic
colorectal surgery development: an historical overview. Mini-invasive Surg 2020;4:2.
http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2574-1225.2019.30

Received: 29 Aug 2019 First Decision: 5 Nov 2019 Revised: 25 Nov 2019 Accepted: 10 Dec 2019 Published: 7 Jan 2020
Science Editor: Nicola de’Angelis Copy Editor: Cai-Hong Wang Production Editor: Tian Zhang

Abstract
The present article is a historical review intended to trace the most important phases in the development of robotic
surgical technology, with a special focus on colorectal surgery. The initial section considers the origin and some
etymological aspects of the word “robot”. Then, a historical overview traces the development of robotic technology in
industry and its implementation within the operating theatres. Finally, the first publications concerning robot-assisted
colon and rectal surgery are reported together with a brief state of the art about this issue.

Keywords: Robotic surgery, colorectal surgery, history

INTRODUCTION
In the contemporary world, the surprising and fascinating development of digital electronic technologies
has determined so many changes in all aspects of human life that we now speak of a “digital revolution”. An

© The Author(s) 2020. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,
and indicate if changes were made.

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