Preliminary experience in transoral laryngeal surgery with a flexible robotic system for benign lesions of the vocal folds.

PURPOSE: This purpose of this case series is to present the first four cases utilizing micro-phonosurgical instrumentation designed specifically for use with a semi-flexible 'robotic' system-the Medrobotics Flex system and to evaluate the accessibility and feasibility of this platform in the context of transoral robotic surgery (TORS) for laryngeal surgery.

METHODS: Four patients (3 female, 1 male; age range 49-79 years) were operated by the senior author at CHL-a tertiary hospital centre between 2016 and 2017. The 'robot' was deployed in all cases to assess its accessibility and ability to perform surgery in the larynx.

RESULTS: All four patients were successfully treated using the system along with newly developed instrumentation specifically focused on phonosurgery.

CONCLUSION: This series has demonstrated accessibility and ability for laryngeal surgery using a novel semi-rigid operator-controlled 'robotic' system. We encountered no device failures and were able to perform all the selected cases uneventfully.