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Page 6 of 9 Gumbs et al. Mini-invasive Surg 2020;4:90 I http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2574-1225.2020.110

Figure 6. Automatic motorized gastrointestinal stapler device (iDrive, Medtronic Inc., Dublin, Ireland)

[13]
but the reconstruction is done robotically or vice versa ? What if the reconstruction is done though a
mini-laparotomy? If a robotically-controlled laparoscope holder is used for a totally laparoscopic Whipple
procedure should it be considered robotically-assisted [14,15] ?

Notably, new techniques of hernia repair that obviate the need for entering into the abdomen at all such
as the Trentino Hernia Team (THT) technique may make the robot superfluous for many midline hernia
[16]
repairs . Currently, open surgery is still the fundamental foundation of abdominal surgery regardless of
the approach used, particularly for the management of catastrophic injuries and complications. As a result,
in this Special Issue, some authors will discuss the management of certain sequelae and/or complications
of robotic and laparoscopic minimally invasive surgery that cannot currently be managed minimally
invasively. This highlights the possibility that, although some general surgical procedures, such as ileostomy
takedown, can never be done minimally invasively, they could theoretically be done with the aid of a robot.
The original impetus for the da Vinci cannot be ignored: engineers wanted to create a robot that could
do even open surgery, and surgeons must be prepared for the possibility that one day this may become
a reality. This possibility is made more clear when we consider that robots designed to function as scrub
[17]
nurses have already been developed .
Currently, the complete surgical “robotic” systems seem to be more of a “motion-control” system and not
[2]
a fully robotic or “reprogrammable” surgical system . Nonetheless, these complete systems will continue
to be beneficial for surgeons, particularly for pathology in small spaces such as the pelvis, which has been
elucidated by the explosion of robotic radical prostatectomy. With the continued evolution of robotic
platforms such as the da Vinci Single-Site Platform (da Vinci Single Site Technology, Intuitive Surgical,
Sunnyvale, CA, USA) [Figure 7], it is impossible to deny the future potential of robotic surgery. This
collection of invited manuscripts from international leaders in the field of robotic and laparoscopic surgery