The new Davinci S made an appearance this week in New Jersey. I had a chance to trial it today.
The main differences for the nursing team are as follows:
1) Much faster setup times with 3 wires instead of 7 to plug into the console.
2) The sterile adaptors are fitted into the drapes, so they are much easier to load.
3) The robot has a battery power source which means my nurses wont have to push it anymore.
The main differences for the surgeon:
1) The robot is much easier to dock since the arms move much more freely.
2) the 4th arm is much more versatile since it can be brought higher up.
3) The arms dock very easily with new adaptors.
4) The most useful feature- The arms are more slender and the ports telescope, making collisions MUCH less frequent. Also the range of motion is much larger.
5) The console is enhanced with streaming images. They had it set up with a cardiac echo, but I was thinking of real time ultrasound for visualizing renal tumors in partial nephrectomies.
You can also get a live feed from a camera in the room to see what your assistant is up to.
6) The console has a TV screen for the assistant.
Overall I was very impressed with the unit. I think I will be capable of doing retroperitoneal surgery and robotic nephroureterectomies on 1 set up now. I can see it taking 10 minutes off of turnaround time and 10-20 minutes off of robotic case.
Overall, its more impressive in person than on the brochure.
For comparison sake, I will call it the standard and give it a score of 100.
That puts the 4-arm unit at an 80.
The 3-arm unit at a 70.
I think the best uses of the machine will be seen in cardiac and thoracic surgery, then general surgery, then urology and gynecology.