Thoracic surgeon Richard Battafarano and interventional pulmonologist Jeffrey Thiboutot discuss the ability to find and remove smaller nodules in the lung through minimally invasive approaches using the new thoracic ion robotic technology.
the new robots for bronchoscopy that have come out are actually truly amazing. Prior generations of bronchoscopes, the traditional bronchoscopes that we use are limited in the amount of flexion and retro flexion that they can actually use. And they're very much dependent on the driver to actually be able to get into the right place that they need to be, And actually stay there and take your samples. Um, the beauty of the robot is that is now remote controlled. It's completely stable, and you're able to get 360 degree rotation, um, complete 180 degree flexion and retro flexion, which enables us to actually get two spots in the periphery of the long that previously weren't possible. We've been using the robot for lung cancer resection in patients for many years on This technology is complementary to the other technology which we uses Video assisted thoracic surgery, or V. A. T. S on the technology uses the same sort of cameras and other instruments that abdominal surgeons would do when they perform such procedures, such as laparoscopic Holy suspect. To me, the robot has some advantages with three d visualization of the anatomy which sometimes is very, very useful. The video assisted technology has the advantage of the surgeon being immediately at the patient's bedside throughout the procedure. So again, each of these minimally invasive techniques air utilized in the care of our patients on each have advantages and disadvantages. So the most common cases in which we prefer to use the robot over traditional video assisted technology would be those tumors that cross towards the center of the chest, near the breastbone and on top of the heart. In these cases, the three d visualization for the operating surgeon, as well as the ability to go across the midline, are actually enhanced with the robot technology. So for this reasons, we preferentially used the robot over video assistant technology. Well, for many years, thoracic surgeons have been trying to perform excellent cancer operations through smaller and smaller incisions with the three dimensional optics of the robot. It's allowed us to do this now with tumors that are in the center of the chest that go across the midline eso this technology, it definitely enhances our ability to complete operations with smaller incisions and yet giving the same outcomes from a cancer standpoint, one of the beauties of the robot is that we're now able to pair it with other technical logical advances in the field of bronchoscopy is well, one of the first things that we're able to do is parrot with something that's called cryo biopsy, where we're able to put an instrument through the working channel of the actual robot itself, freeze the lung nodule in the periphery and retrieve it that way, which has promised of offering better, more preserved specimens. Other things that we can do is we're able to combine the robot with radial Abbas, which gives us a real time check that that that the robot has navigated to the correct portion of the lung nodule on did. The other thing that we have potential to combine this with is cone beam C T, which is another technical logical advancement, which gives us another real time check to make sure our instrument is actually located within the nodule. The place that we intended to be
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