Bergs, Richard2007-08-232011-08-242007-08-232011-08-242007-08-23April 2006http://hdl.handle.net/10106/230Laparoscopic surgery has become increasingly popular over the last few years due to its benefits; lower morbidity, less perceived pain, better cosmesis results, and less hospital time. For the surgeon however, there are fundamental issues that can make a laparoscopic procedure more difficult than simple open surgery; loss of tactile feel, limited working envelope, high demand for hand-eye coordination, and one trocar-port required for each tool. A revolutionary concept of using magnetics to support tooling across the abdominal wall was conceived by Dr. Jeffrey Cadeddu and his colleagues at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Collectively referred to as the Magnetic Anchoring System (MAS), the concept has been tested in porcine surgical procedures at the UTSW animal lab, and is capable of two-trocar-port nephrectomy. The development of the magnetic anchor platform, the cited tools and the evaluation of the system and its components are the topics of this thesis.ENM.S.E.