Background and Aims. Small gastric or colorectal tumours can be visually undetectable during laparoscopic surgeries, and available\nmethods still do not provide a 100%localisation rate.Thus, newmethods for further improvements in tumour localisation are highly\ndesirable. In this study, we evaluated the usage of the Medical Tactile Endosurgical Complex (MTEC) in gastrointestinal surgery\nfor localisation of tumours. The MTEC provides the possibility of instrumental mechanoreceptoric palpation, which serves as an\nanalogue of conventional manual palpation. Methods.Ninety-six elective surgeries were performed, including 48 open surgeries, 43\nlaparoscopies, and 5 robot-assisted surgeries. The 20mmversion of the MTEC tactile mechanoreceptor was used in open surgeries,\nand the 10mm version in laparoscopic and robot-assisted surgeries. Results. The mean time of instrumental mechanoreceptoric\npalpation was 3 minutes 12 seconds for open surgeries, which constituted the early stage of the learning curve, and 3 minutes\n34 seconds for laparoscopic surgeries. No side effects or postoperative complications related to instrumental mechanoreceptoric\npalpation were observed, and this procedure provided data sufficient for tumour localisation inmore than 95% of cases. Conclusion.\nInstrumental mechanoreceptoric palpation performed using MTEC is a simple, safe, and reliable method for tumour localisation\nin gastrointestinal laparoscopic surgery.
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