Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jun 17;22(12):4577.
doi: 10.3390/s22124577.

A Smarter Health through the Internet of Surgical Things

Francesk Mulita  1   2 , Georgios-Ioannis Verras  2 , Christos-Nikolaos Anagnostopoulos  1 , Konstantinos Kotis  1
Affiliations

A Smarter Health through the Internet of Surgical Things

Francesk Mulita et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

(1) Background: In the last few years, technological developments in the surgical field have been rapid and are continuously evolving. One of the most revolutionizing breakthroughs was the introduction of the IoT concept within surgical practice. Our systematic review aims to summarize the most important studies evaluating the IoT concept within surgical practice, focusing on Telesurgery and surgical Telementoring. (2) Methods: We conducted a systematic review of the current literature, focusing on the Internet of Surgical Things in Telesurgery and Telementoring. Forty-eight (48) studies were included in this review. As secondary research questions, we also included brief overviews of the use of IoT in image-guided surgery, and patient Telemonitoring, by systematically analyzing fourteen (14) and nineteen (19) studies, respectively. (3) Results: Data from 219 patients and 757 healthcare professionals were quantitively analyzed. Study designs were primarily observational or based on model development. Palpable advantages from the IoT incorporation mainly include less surgical hours, accessibility to high quality treatment, and safer and more effective surgical education. Despite the described technological advances, and proposed benefits of the systems presented, there are still identifiable gaps in the literature that need to be further explored in a systematic manner. (4) Conclusions: The use of the IoT concept within the surgery domain is a widely incorporated but less investigated concept. Advantages have become palpable over the past decade, yet further research is warranted.

Keywords: Internet of Surgical Things; IoT; smart health; surgical practice.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Connected IoST entities and workflow of an IoST-based Telementoring/Telesurgery System.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Connected IoST entities and workflow of an IoST-based Image-Guided Surgical System.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Connected IoST entities and workflow of an IoST-based Telemonitoring System.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Fuertes-Guiró F., Vitali-Erion E., Rodriguez-Franco A. A Program of Telementoring in Laparoscopic Bariatric Surgery. Minim. Invasive Ther. Allied Technol. 2016;25:8–14. doi: 10.3109/13645706.2015.1083446. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Mitsuno D., Hirota Y., Akamatsu J., Kino H., Okamoto T., Ueda K. Telementoring Demonstration in Craniofacial Surgery With HoloLens, Skype, and Three-Layer Facial Models. J. Craniofac. Surg. 2019;30:28–32. doi: 10.1097/SCS.0000000000004899. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cos H., Li D.W., Williams G., Chininis J., Dai R.X., Zhang J.W., Srivastava R., Raper L., Sanford D., Hawkins W., et al. Predicting Outcomes in Patients Undergoing Pancreatectomy Using Wearable Technology and Machine Learning: Prospective Cohort Study. J. Med. Internet Res. 2021;23:11. doi: 10.2196/23595. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ohta H., Izumi S., Yoshimoto M. A More Acceptable Endoluminal Implantation for Wirelessly Monitoring Vital Signals Using Ingestible Sensors Anchored to the Stomach Wall; Proceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC); Milano, Italy. 25–29 August 2015. - PubMed
    1. Ushimaru Y., Takahashi T., Souma Y., Yanagimoto Y., Nagase H., Tanaka K., Miyazaki Y., Makino T., Kurokawa Y., Yamasaki M., et al. Innovation in Surgery/Operating Room Driven by Internet of Things on Medical Devices. Surg. Endosc. 2019;33:3469–3477. doi: 10.1007/s00464-018-06651-4. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types