Patent ID: 6522906
Filing Date: 2003-02-18
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
A method of performing a surgical procedure on a patient, the method comprising:positioning a surgical work station of a robotically controlled surgical system and a patient on which a surgical procedure is to be performed in close proximity relative to each other; directing a field of view of an image caprute device of the surgical work station at a surgical site on the patient, at which site the surgical procedure is to be performed; introducing at least one robotically controlled surgical instrument on the surgical work station to the surgical site so that an end effector of the surgical instrument is within the field of view of the image capture device; displaying an image of the surgical site and the end effector on a display area of an image display at an operator control station of the surgical system, the image display being operatively connected to the image capture device so as to display on the display area the image of the surgical site and the end effector captured by the image capture device; permitting an operator of the surgical system to effect a manipulation of a linkage of a master control in three dimensions at the operator control station whilst viewing the image of the surgical site on the image display, the master control being operatively associated with the surgical instrument thereby to cause the end effector to move in response to the manipulation of the linkage of the master control so as to perform at least part of the surgical procedure on the patient at the surgical site; operatively linking the image display to a source of selectively accessible auxiliary information related to the surgical procedure to be performed; enabling the operator selecibely to access the source of auxiliary information from the operator control station so as to forward the auxiliary information to the image display; causing the auxiliary information to be displayed across the display area of the image display in response to the operator selectively accessing the source of auxiliary information at the operator control station; and enabling the operator selectively to move the auxiliary information when displayed on the image display relative to the image of the surgical site displayed on the image display; wherein the master control is operatively linked with the source of auxiliatry information, said enabling the operator selectively to access the source of auxiliary information comprising permitting toe operator selectively to disassociate the master control from the surgical instrument and to use the master control to access the source of auxiliary information in response to the manipulation of the linkage so as to enable the auxiliary information to be displayed on the display area of the image display.