ROBOTIC SURGERY IN ENT

There has been increasing interest in using robots to help the surgeon perform complex surgical procedures within small spaces thereby saving the patient more invasive incisions. Especially in the world of ENT, surgery that may have required large incisions to the face and/or neck can now be accomplished without any incisions by using robotics to perform the same surgery, but entirely through the mouth
Such robotic surgery performed through the mouth is called Trans-Oral Robotic Surgery, or simply TORS. The DaVinci system is the robotics platform that is most commonly used in TORS....
Using TORS and other approaches, head and neck surgeons have been able to remove the thyroid gland through the armpit, perform base of tongue cancer surgical excision (same cancer that Michael Douglas had), voicebox removal (laryngectomy), vocal cord surgery
In many of these and other surgeries, any procedure performed through the mouth traditionally was limited to two hands. With the DaVinci system, one technically can fit as many as FOUR "hands" inside the mouth enabling greater surgical flexibility and ease in performing fine dissections that otherwise would be impossible
There are some downsides however... namely, use of robotic surgery is not compensated by insurance and as such, major medical centers are the only locations where such high-tech equipment is available....