Conflicts of Interest

Raf Bisschops is currently serving as an associate editor in Clinical Endoscopy; however, he was not involved in the peer reviewer selection, evaluation, or decision process of this article. Raf Bisschops received speaker’s fees, consultancy, and research support from Pentax, Fujifilm, and Medtronic. The other authors have no potential conflicts of interest.

Funding

Pieter Sinonquel is supported by a grant from Research Foundation Flanders (1S82223N). Alexander Jans is supported by a grant from Research Foundation Flanders (1SHD924N). Raf Bisschops is supported by a grant from Research Foundation Flanders and Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds-Fonds Klinisch Onderzoek (BOF-FKO) grand of KU Leuven.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: RB; Funding acquisition: PS, AJ; Visualization: AJ; Writing–original draft: PS, RB; Writing–review & editing: all authors.

Table 1.

Robotic colonoscopy systems

Robotic colonoscopy system Manufacturer Characteristic Availability Reference Endotics system Era Endoscopy, Pisa, Italy - Electro-pneumatic self-advancing locomotion Available for clinical practice Cosentino et al. 200938 - The device is controlled remotely by a hand-held control device Neoguide endoscopy system Neoguide Endoscopy System Inc., Los Gatos, CA, USA - Electro-mechanical propulsion via follow-the-leader principle) Not available Eickhoff et al. 200739 - 16-segment insertion tube controlling the snake-like movement - Position sensors at the distal tip and external base for live scope positioning and 3-dimensional colon mapping Invendoscope SC40 Invendo Medical GmbH, Weinheim, Germany - Electro-mechanical propulsion with an inverted sleeve mechanism Not available Rösch et al. 200840 - Hand-held remote for tip control Aer-O-Scope system GI View Ltd., Ramat Gan, Israel - Self-steering, self-propelling and disposable colonoscope Not available Vucelic et al. 200641 - Inflation and deflation of two inflatable balloons (proximal and distal) together with pneumatic pressure control in between the two balloons is used for movement ColonoSight system Stryker GI Ltd, Haifa, Israel - Electo-mechanical self-propulsion Not available Shike et al. 200842 - Exists of a reusable part (the colonosope) and a disposable part (multi-lumen sheath with working channel)