Team-based recovery from unexpected events beyond bleeding control in robot-assisted thoracic surgery.

Robot-assisted thoracic surgery provides precise instrument control, but unexpected events may occur beyond bleeding control. We describe a practical recovery protocol for non-bleeding events during RATS. Representative events included visual loss, interface plate damage, unexpected vessel sealer motion, robotic arm excursion, and stapler-arm interference. Key steps were Stop Call, patient-side safety confirmation, verbal sharing, reassessment, conversion when safe recovery is not possible, and team agreement before restart.