Anesthesia for Robotic Thoracic Surgery (Da Vinci Decoded)

The da Vinci Surgical System is a robotic surgical system made by the American company Intuitive Surgical. Approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2000, it is designed to facilitate surgery using a minimally invasive approach, and is controlled by a surgeon from a console. Robotic surgery has gained popularity worldwide recently in different surgical domains, the mastering of robotic manipulation by the surgeons has been a challenging when it first emerged but training and practice led to improvement in both the efficiency and efficacy of surgical techniques. The idea of anesthesia for robotic thoracic surgery could be frightening to anesthetists who have never done it before, but learning the technical difficulties and the specific considerations will help building the confidence towards a safe anesthetic management. In this overview we will discuss the interaction between the robot and the patient, patient position, anesthetic management, expected complications and troubleshooting them.