METHOD FOR RELIABLY AND AUTOMATICALLY FOLLOWING AN ENDOSCOPE AND FOR TRACKING A SURGICAL INSTRUMENT WITH AN ELECTRICALLY DRIVEN AND CONTROLLED ENDOSCOPE GUIDE SYSTEM (EFS) FOR PERFORMING MINIMALLY INVASIVE SURGERY

摘要

In a method of guiding an endoscope for performing minimally invasive surgery, wherein a surgical instrument is automatically tracked by an electrically driven and controlled guide system (EGS), three base steps are principally followed: the computer controlled processing of fault tolerances, the intuitive use of the equipment by the surgeon and the sovereignty of the operating surgeon. In this way, a high degree of reliability during operation is achieved and the surgeon is relieved from the tasks of performing the tracking procedures which requires a high level of concentration and from carrying out tasks of relatively low priority.