Abstract
The development of new medical electronic devices and equipment has increased the use of electrical apparatuses in surgery. Many studies have reported the association of long-term exposure to extremely low-frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MFs) with diseases or cancer. Robotic surgery has emerged as an alternative tool to overcome the disadvantages of conventional laparoscopic surgery. However, there has been no report regarding how much ELF-MF surgeons are exposed to during laparoscopic and robotic surgeries. In this observational study, we aimed to measure and compare the ELF-MFs that surgeons are exposed to during laparoscopic and robotic surgery.The intensities of the ELF-MFs surgeons are exposed to were measured every 4 seconds for 20 cases of laparoscopic surgery and 20 cases of robotic surgery using portable ELF-MF measuring devices with logging capability.The mean ELF-MF exposures were 0.6 ± 0.1 mG for laparoscopic surgeries and 0.3 ± 0.0 mG for robotic surgeries (significantly lower with P < 0.001 by Mann-Whitney U test).Our results show that the ELF-MF exposure levels of surgeons in both robotic and conventional laparoscopic surgery were lower than 2 mG, which is the most stringent level considered safe in many studies. However, we should not overlook the effects of long-term ELF-MF exposure during many surgeries in the course of a surgeon's career.