The term 'robotic surgery' is usually regarded by researchers to mean a motorised reprogrammable computer controlled device which can carry a series of sensors and tools as an aid to diagnosis, therapy or surgery. However many clinical groups also use the term 'robot surgery' for the area which more properly should be considered 'computer assisted surgery'. The majority of applications to date have been in this area, partially because they are regarded as safer than active robot systems. For this reason a preliminary discussion of Computer Assisted Surgery is given below.

Inspec keywords: computer aided instruction; surgery; medical robotics

Other keywords: motorised reprogrammable computer controlled device; computer assisted surgery; clinical groups; robotic surgery

Subjects: Patient care and treatment