Medical robotic system providing three-dimensional telestration

A medical robotic system providing three-dimensional telestration, comprising:

• a stereoscopic camera assembly insertable into a body of a patient so as to capture pairs of stereoscopic images of an anatomical structure of the patient during a minimally invasive surgical procedure;
• an expert console having a receiver configured to receive a right or left view of the pairs of stereoscopic images captured by the stereoscopic camera assembly, a display for two-dimensionally displaying the received right or left view, a telestration device configured to facilitate generation of a telestration graphic input by an operator of the expert console over the two-dimensionally displayed right or left view, and a transmitter configured to transmit the telestration graphic input;
• and
• a surgeon console having a first receiver configured to receive the pairs of stereoscopic images captured by the stereoscopic camera assembly, and a second receiver configured to receive the telestration graphic input transmitted by the transmitter of the expert console, wherein the surgeon console is configured to generate a disparity map from the received pairs of stereoscopic images, and determine a corresponding telestration graphic input in the other of the pair of stereoscopic images using the disparity map so that a three-dimensional view of the telestration graphic input may be displayed as an overlay to a three-dimensional view of the anatomical structure.