[Robotics in oral and maxillofacial surgery. Possibilities, chances, risks]

Robot systems are being tested in stereotactic neurosurgical interventions, orthopedic surgery of the hip or knee and advancal endoscopic systems for minimally invasive surgery. In contrast to most industrially manufactured products, objects for medical treatment are characterized by plasticity as well as by complex and individual forms. Thus, features of robots in this field have to be further developed in terms of advanced sensory and specific micromotoric systems. Safety and cooperation between surgeon and robot on the patient in the operating room have to be guaranteed. Extensive three-dimensional diagnosis, computer-aided planning and simulation of the intervention as well as sensory systems that monitor the actual performance of the operation are mandatory parts of this concept. In our interdisciplinary study, we aim to examine whether a robot-given a complete preoperative planning and simulation procedure-is able to perform certain surgical operations more precisely than the surgeon. Examples are drilling with depth control, shaping of bone surface by milling, sawing with defined depth in cranial osteotomies, defined preparation of implant sites and the positioning and insertion of dental and other surgical implants, whereby autonomous employment of the robot is not that which is aspired to in these interventions but rather the interactive support of the surgeon.