Porcine Training Models for Image-Guided Transoral Robotic Surgery

Area of Science:

• Surgical Oncology
• Medical Simulation
• Robotic Surgery

Background:

• Transoral robotic surgery (TORS) offers potential for enhanced accuracy and safety in throat cancer resections.
• Limited availability of cost-effective, realistic research and training models hinders the evaluation of advanced TORS technologies, such as image-guided navigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present and evaluate two novel porcine models for simulating head and neck anatomy relevant to TORS.
• To assess the efficacy of these models in training and evaluating image-guided navigation systems for TORS.

Main Methods:

• Development of two porcine models mimicking human tongue, larynx, and pharynx anatomy.
• Utilization of a previously developed transoral robotic surgery (TORS) navigation system with a da Vinci surgical system.
• Surgeons performed target localization tasks within the porcine models using the navigation system.

Main Results:

• The developed porcine models provided a realistic simulation of key anatomical structures for TORS.
• The models facilitated the evaluation of an image-guided TORS navigation system in target localization tasks.
• The study demonstrated the potential of these models as effective training and research tools.

Conclusions:

• The presented porcine models are cost-effective and realistic tools for research and training in image-guided TORS.
• These models can be adapted for evaluating advancements in TORS and other ear, nose, and throat (ENT) procedures, including transoral laser microsurgery (TLM).