Published online Mar 12, 2021. doi: 10.37126/aige.v2.i1.1
Peer-review started: January 23, 2021
First decision: February 28, 2021
Revised: March 10, 2021
Accepted: March 12, 2021
Article in press: March 12, 2021
Published online: March 12, 2021
Processing time: 50 Days and 16.4 Hours
Fifth-generation wireless network, 5G, is expected to bring surgery to a next level. Remote surgery and telementoring could be enabled and be brought into routine medical care due to 5G characteristics, such as extreme high bandwidth, ultra-short latency, multiconnectivity, high mobility, high availability, and high reliability. This work explores the benefits, applications and demands of 5G for surgery. Therefore, the development of previous surgical procedures from using older networks to 5G is outlined. The current state of 5G in surgical research studies is discussed, as well as future aspects and requirements of 5G in surgery are presented.
Core Tip: Very few research studies have been conducted to prove efficacy and feasibility of 5G in surgery so far, with most of these studies being case studies. All of them reported a stable 5G network proving 5G to be feasible for surgery. However, detailed information about the data rate and latency are missing. More research efforts are demanded to explore questions like the combination with new technologies, e.g., Virtual Reality, political regulations, or cyber-security if 5G becomes the backbone of next-generation surgery.