[Robot-controlled MRI-guided transrectal prostate biopsy, a promising technique]

At the so-called in-bore, MRI-guided prostate biopsy, the radiologist in the MRI suite manually directs a rectal biopsy needle guide at an abnormality confirmed by a previous prostate MRI. This manual technique of taking a biopsy is time-consuming and thus rather expensive, as the patient has to be moved in and out of the MRI several times. Since 2015, a remote-controlled manipulator robot (RCM) has been available. Using this apparatus the radiologist is able to position the needle guide remotely. This technique is simple to learn and less time-consuming than the in-bore biopsy without the RCM. In this article we discuss the findings from the first 201 patients in the Netherlands from whom robot-guided prostate biopsies have been taken.