Emerging technologies for surgery in the 21st century

Laparoscopic surgery is a transition technology that marked the beginning o f the information age revolution for surgery. Telepresence surgery, robotic s, tele-education, and telementoring are the next step in the revolution. U sing computer-aided systems such as robotics and image-guided surgery, the next generation of surgical systems will be more sophisticated and will per mit surgeons to perform surgical procedures beyond the current limitations of human performance, especially at the microscale or on moving organs. Mor e fundamentally, there will be an increased reliance on 3-dimensional image s of the patient, gathered by computed tomography, magnetic resonance imagi ng, ultrasound, or other scanning techniques, to integrate the entire spect rum of surgical care from diagnosis to preoperative planning to intraoperat ive navigation to education through simulation. By working through the comp uter-generated image, first with preoperative planning and then during tele presence or image-guided procedures, new approaches to surgery will be disc overed, These technologies are complemented by new educational opportunitie s, such as tele-education, surgical simulation, and a Web-based curriculum. Telementoring will permit further extension of the educational process dir ectly into the operating room.