Abstract
News editors obtained the following quote from the background information suppli ed by the inventors:“Managing vision and access during a laparoscopic procedure is a challenge. The surgical assistant paradigmis inherently imperfect, as the assistant is being asked to anticipate and see with the surgeon’s eyes, withoutstanding where the surgeon stands, and similarly to anticipate and adjust how t he surgeon wants the tissueof interest exposed, throughout the procedure. For e xample, during a laparoscopic procedure, one assistantmay be required to hold a retractor device to expose tissue for the surgeon, while another assistant maybe required to hold a laparoscope device to provide a field of view of the surgi cal space within the patientto the surgeon during the procedure, either one of which may be required to hold the respective tools inan impractical position, e .g., from between the arms of the surgeon while the surgeon is actively operating additional surgical instruments.
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