I am often asked about other robotic surgical platforms other than Intuitive’s Da Vinci Surgical System.
There currently aren’t any systems that are being used to perform laparoscopic surgery to my knowledge. Prior to 2003, when Computer Motion merged with Intuitive Surgical, Computer Motion had a product called the Zeus surgical system.
This system had a flat screen 2-D monitor and didn’t have endowrist instruments. I believe the movement of the instruments was not intuitive, but more like regular laparoscopy (this may have been upgraded prior to its retirement). One nice feature of the Zeus was the AESOP camera system, which was voice activated and gave a still picture. This was a small upgrade overall to conventional laparoscopic surgery, but not in the same class as the current da Vinci system.
I found a picture of the system online at thinkquest.org.
