Digital Innovation in Reconstructive Surgery: Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Digital Twin Technology—A Surgeon’s Perspective
摘要
Plastic and reconstructive surgery is undergoing a period of rapid technological transformation driven by advances in robotics, artificial intelligence, and digital modelling. These innovations are reshaping how surgeons plan, perform, and evaluate reconstructive procedures across craniofacial, breast, limb, and head and neck surgery. This chapter provides a surgeon centered overview of emerging digital technologies and their clinical implications within reconstructive practice. Robotic platforms have introduced enhanced visualization, motion scaling, and improved instrument articulation, offering advantages in confined operative fields and in supermicrosurgical procedures where precision at submillimeter scales is required. Artificial intelligence is increasingly applied across the perioperative pathway, supporting risk prediction, imaging analysis, operative workflow recognition, and postoperative monitoring. Machine learning models have demonstrated potential to improve patient selection, predict complications, and assist intraoperative decision-making through computer vision and predictive analytics. Parallel advances in digital planning technologies, including augmented reality, virtual reality, and three-dimensional modelling, enable detailed preoperative simulation and patient specific surgical planning. These tools allow surgeons to visualize anatomy with greater accuracy and rehearse complex procedures prior to entering the operating theatre. The convergence of these technologies has led to the emergence of digital twins, dynamic computational models that mirror patient specific anatomy and physiology in real time. Digital twins integrate multimodal clinical data to simulate surgical interventions, forecast tissue behavior, and guide decision-making throughout the perioperative continuum. Although significant challenges remain regarding validation, regulation, interoperability, and ethical governance, digital surgery represents a paradigm shift toward data driven, personalized reconstructive care.