Percutaneous nephrolithotomy guided by 5G-powered robot-assisted teleultrasound diagnosis system: first clinical experience with a novel tele-assistance approach (IDEAL stage 1)

Background To demonstrate the technical feasibility of percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) guided by 5G-powered robot-assisted teleultrasound diagnosis system (RTDS) in a complex kidney-stone (CKS) cohort and present our preliminary outcomes.

PCNL is highly skill-required, which hinders it popularization in primary medical units of remote regions.

We designed an innovative tele-assistance approach to make PCNL easy to be operated by inexperienced surgeons.

Methods This was a prospective proof-of-concept study (IDEAL phase 1) on intraoperative tele-assistance provided by online urological experts via a 5G-powered RTDS.

Total 15 CKS patients accepted this technology.

Online experts manipulated a simulated probe to assist unskilled local operators by driving a patient-side robot-probe to guide and monitor the steps of access establishment and finding residual stones.

Results Median total delay was 177ms despite one-way network-connecting distance > 5,800 km.

No perceptible delay of audio-visual communication, driving robot-arm or dynamic ultrasound images was fed back.

Successful tele-assistance was obtained in all cases.

The first-puncture access-success rate was 78.6% with a one-session SF rate of 71.3% and without complications of grade III-V. Conclusions The current technology based on 5G-powered RTDS can provide high-quality intraoperative tele-assistance, which has preliminarily shown satisfactory outcomes and reliable safety.

It will break down a personal competence-based barrier to endow PCNL with more popular utilization.

Trial registration The study was approved by ethics committee of the Xinjiang Kezhou People’s Hospital and ethics committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University and was registered on http://www.chictr.org.cn (ChiCTR2200065849, 16/11/2022).