Robotic and imaging in urological surgery

Purpose of review New imaging modalities and tissue navigation systems, which are adoptable to minimally invasive robotic urological surgical systems and prone to make the procedures more precise and easy, are reviewed. Recent findings Image-guided surgery as the general name of combining information of imaging modalities with real-time surgery has already found a place in open and minimally invasive procedures. Soft tissue navigation is a complex type of computer-assisted surgery for soft tissue interventions. Robotic surgery has advantages of superior degrees of freedom and three-dimensional stereotactic user interface. A combination of surgical robotics with image-assisted surgery and soft tissue navigation may offer advantages of more precise anatomical target localization and dissection with minimal damage to the tissue. Solving the problem of organ shift and as a result, unpredictable changing of intraoperative anatomy soft tissue navigation has the potential to increase the precision of minimally invasive robotic surgery. Summary Apart from less invasiveness, the concomitant use of minimal invasive robotic systems with soft tissue navigation enhances surgical precision. However, at present, abdominal navigation systems are in experimental use and not perfect enough for daily surgical routine.