[Current Status and Future Prospect of Robot-assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery]

As surgical robots have widely spread, verification of their usefulness in the general thoracic surgery field is required. The most favorable advantage of robot-assisted surgery is the markedly free movement of joint-equipped robotic forceps under 3-dimensional high-vision. Accurate operation makes complex procedures straightforward and may overcome weak points of previous thoracoscopic surgery. Robot-assisted surgery for lung cancer and mediastinal disease have been safely introduced and initial results have shown favorable. It is still at the stage of clinical research, but recently a lot of merits of robot-assisted thoracic surgery are proved. Although safety management, education and significant cost are also important issues, the robotic-assisted thoracoscopic surgery will become one of the surgical options in minimally invasive surgery.