Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38553597›Full record

SynthesisSurgical endoscopy2024

The current state of autonomous suturing: a systematic review.

Benjamin T Ostrander, Daniel Massillon, Leo Meller, Zih-Yun Chiu, Michael Yip, Ryan K Orosco

Abstract readSystematic Review
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Surgical endoscopy, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed
10.9field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 19 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. AI-guided wound closure: complementing surgical judgment.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2026
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Review
  6. A reproducible framework for synthetic data generation and instance segmentation in robotic suturing.International journal of computer assisted radiology and surgery · 2025
    Article
  7. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Benjamin T OstranderDepartment of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of California San Diego Health, San Diego, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-8187-8557
Daniel MassillonSchool of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Leo MellerSchool of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Zih-Yun ChiuDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Michael YipDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Ryan K OroscoDivision of Otolaryngology, Department of Surgery, University of New Mexico, 1201 Camino de Salud NE, Albuquerque, NM, 87102, USA. RKOrosco@salud.unm.edu.
University of California San Diego · USUniversity of New Mexico · USUniversity of San Diego · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundRobotic technology is an important tool in surgical innovation, with robots increasingly being used in the clinical setting. Robots can be used to enhance accuracy, perform remote actions, or to automate tasks. One such surgical task is suturing, a repetitive, fundamental component of surgery that can be tedious and time consuming. Suturing is a promising automation target because of its ubiquity, repetitive nature, and defined constraints. This systematic review examines research to date on autonomous suturing.

methodsA systematic review of the literature focused on autonomous suturing was conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines.

results6850 articles were identified by searching PubMed, Embase, Compendex, and Inspec. Duplicates and non-English articles were removed. 4389 articles were screened and 4305 were excluded. Of the 84 remaining, 43 articles did not meet criteria, leaving 41 articles for final review. Among these, 34 (81%) were published after 2014. 31 (76%) were published in an engineering journal9 in a robotics journal, and 1 in a medical journal. The great majority of articles (33, 80%) did not have a specific clinical specialty focus, whereas 6 (15%) were focused on applications in MIS/laparoscopic surgery and 2 (5%) on applications in ophthalmology. Several suturing subtasks were identified, including knot tying, suture passing/needle insertion, needle passing, needle and suture grasping, needle tracking/kinesthesia, suture thread detection, suture needle shape production, instrument assignment, and suture accuracy. 14 articles were considered multi-component because they referred to several previously mentioned subtasks.

conclusionIn this systematic review exploring research to date on autonomous suturing, 41 articles demonstrated significant progress in robotic suturing. This summary revealed significant heterogeneity of work, with authors focused on different aspects of suturing and a multitude of engineering problems. The review demonstrates increasing academic and commercial interest in surgical automation, with significant technological advances toward feasibility.

Indexed as

Robotic Surgical ProceduresSuture TechniquesHumansLaparoscopySuturesAutonomous surgeryAutonomous suturingRoboticsRobotic surgerySurgical innovationSuturing

Identifiers

PMID38553597
OpenAlexW4393302630

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.