A Novel Manual Training Platform for Single-Port Laparoscopic Surgery
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors propose a training platform for minimally invasive surgery (MIS). The equipment uses a Single-Port approach and the entire project process is detailed along the text, resulting in a training prototype.
The paper is well organized, although with a few confusing phrases along the text. A careful revision is suggested.
I believe it has enough material and results for a publication. However, there is one major point that needs to be improved: the paper novelty/references.
Only 4 references are from past 5 years. It needs at least 50% of the references to be up to date (please add more or change them).
These new references must be used in the introduction to show recent work in this area and it must be highlighted the relevance of them for your work. This also should be related to the paper scientific contribution, which is not so clear (for the area).
Conclusion needs a future work paragraph.
Minor Suggestions:
Maybe the numbered list (L141 and L181) can be a frame (1 cell table) with a better format, to detach the items from the text. It is a bit confusing for the reader as it is.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Manuscript with title
"A novel manual training platform for single-port laparoscopic surgery" contains a contribution by the authors, which can be evaluated with high quality. The authors describe the design, model, principle of operation of the laparoscopic mechanism. The proposed construction contains a combination of link sections and redundant sections. The advantages of this design lie mainly in the overall operability of the device. The mechanism is fully based on the mechanical principle and this also applies to the actual handling of the mechanism. I can also highly appreciate the designed mechanical part of the control of the device itself, which uses power transmission by means of a system of handling steel or plastic ropes and gears. The mechanism itself is ingeniously designed and implemented while achieving the required operability parameters. Despite the obviously huge benefits, I have a question? How will the mechanism be calibrated in the future and how will the elimination of adverse phenomena arising from the use and aging of the material, such as the accuracy of the mechanism, rigidity of mechanical parts, changes in stiffness and deformation of elements such as steel or plastic ropes, gears, springs, friction and functionality and its gradual change?
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Thank you for accepting the suggestions and for the effort to improve the paper.
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The authors did all corrections that I suggested. I have no further additions.
