Surgical Skills Lab Dresden

Minimally invasive and robotic surgery

Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) encompasses surgical techniques in which the patient is operated on through skin incisions measuring just a few millimetres using camera technology and special surgical instruments. When surgery is performed in the abdominal area, the technique is referred to as laparoscopic surgery. From a purely technical point of view, almost any operation can be performed minimally invasively nowadays. The advantages of these surgical techniques for patients include smaller wounds, more aesthetic scars, shorter hospital stays, fewer surgery-related complications and less pain.

Robot-assisted surgery works on the same principle, but the camera and instruments are attached to robotic arms that are ‘remotely controlled’ by a surgeon using a special console. While laparoscopic surgery has been established for decades, robot-assisted surgery is newer, but increasingly recognised and used more frequently. With the help of a surgical robot, complex tumour operations in the abdominal cavity in particular can be performed using minimally invasive techniques. This is the focus and area of expertise of the Clinic and Polyclinic for Visceral, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery at Dresden University Hospital, which has many years of experience in this field. Around 250 complex visceral surgical procedures are performed at our site each year with the help of several surgical robots.