INITIAL EXPERIENCE IN PERFORMING ABDOMINAL SURGERY WITH THE VERSIUS ROBOTIC SYSTEM

Abstract

Introduced at the end of the last century, laparoscopic surgery gradually became the gold standard in a number of fields of surgery. It has become a preferred method in emergency surgical conditions as well. Nevertheless, it also has its limitations and disadvantages. The pursuit of improved surgical outcomes in the surgical treatment of patients is an ongoing process and this has led to the invention and introduction of robotic surgical systems. The main areas in which the scientists began to develop were improving visualization, the possibility of 3D imaging, and maximum ergonomics when working in narrow and hard-to-reach places. They are still continuing to improve this methodology in order to improve the feedback when manipulating tissues with robotic instruments and the surgeon's sense of touch when holding the handles. The future of this technology appears to be the implementation of AI in robotic surgery. Today, over 10 million operations have been performed with the use of over 7,000 robots. According to statistical data, the growth rate of abdominal robotic surgeries is over 15%. The aim of our study is to investigate the safety and applicability of the Versius robotic system in general surgery. In this topic, we examined all patients operated on using the Versius robotic system in the surgical department of "Uni Hospital" - Panagyurishte from February 2025 to July 2025. Interventions were performed by two experienced abdominal surgeons who underwent online and mock training. We analyzed the obtained results according to several main criteria: type of surgery (oncological and non-oncological), docking time, collisions, major alarms, duration of the operation - console time, hospital stay, complications and mortality. We operated on 21 patients during the mentioned period of time. The number of oncological surgeries was the largest – 14 (66.7%). We performed hernioplasty and cholecystectomy in 6 patients. In one patient, the robotic system was used for the correction of a combined vaginal and rectal prolapse. Conversions were required in 2 of the cases (9.5%). We believe that robotic techniques have their place in elective and emergency surgery in the treatment of both benign and malignant conditions. Applied by experienced teams and in well-selected patients, robotic surgery is a completely safe and oncologically proven method in the treatment of carcinomas of the gastrointestinal tract.