Development of a broad-view camera system for minimally invasive surgery

A big advantage of minimally invasive surgery is the quick recovery afforded by the minimal physical injury sustained by patients. However, the operative field provided by the endoscope camera is rather narrow. This paper discusses a new broad-view camera system, which is capable of providing a wider view of the internal organs during minimally invasive surgery. This system consists of a camera unit for capturing the image and a monitor for displaying the captured image. With the use of this system, the invasiveness of the procedure does not increase, and the other specifications of current minimally invasive surgery are maintained. Furthermore, it can function as a second camera (in addition to the one attached to the endoscope) and can help assess the overall state of the target area. In this paper, we present this a newly developed camera system, which is intended for use along with the proposed system. The camera system is composed of a miniature color CMOS camera, an indwelling needle, and an extra-thin connector. The specific design of the camera unit and the method for positioning it are shown here. The performance of this camera system has been confirmed through basic and laparoscopic surgery on animals.