title: Computer-assisted abdominal surgery: new technologies.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Computer-assisted surgery is a wide field of technologies with the potential to enable the surgeon to improve efficiency and efficacy of diagnosis, treatment, and clinical management.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This review provides an overview of the most important new technologies and their applications.
  
  
  METHODS
  A MEDLINE database search was performed revealing a total of 1702 references. All references were considered for information on six main topics, namely image guidance and navigation, robot-assisted surgery, human-machine interface, surgical processes and clinical pathways, computer-assisted surgical training, and clinical decision support. Further references were obtained through cross-referencing the bibliography cited in each work. Based on their respective field of expertise, the authors chose 64 publications relevant for the purpose of this review.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Computer-assisted systems are increasingly used not only in experimental studies but also in clinical studies. Although computer-assisted abdominal surgery is still in its infancy, the number of studies is constantly increasing, and clinical studies start showing the benefits of computers used not only as tools of documentation and accounting but also for directly assisting surgeons during diagnosis and treatment of patients. Further developments in the field of clinical decision support even have the potential of causing a paradigm shift in how patients are diagnosed and treated.
authors.affiliation: Department of General, Abdominal and Transplant Surgery, Ruprecht-Karls-University, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: H G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Kenngott
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Nickel
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Wekerle
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Preukschas
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Apitz
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schulte
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rempel
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mietkowski
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Termer
authors.forename: Beat P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Müller-Stich
mesh_terms: D000005:Abdomen / Q000601:surgery*; D000818:Animals; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006804:Ergonomics; D006801:Humans; D000069550:Machine Learning; D017064:Process Assessment, Health Care; D025321:Surgery, Computer-Assisted / Q000193:education / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000639:trends*; D014584:User-Computer Interface