Note 20 - Related Person Transactions (Details Textual) - USD ($)	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2020	Dec. 31, 2019
Sofar S.p.A. [Member] \| Purchase of Equipment [Member]
Related Party Transaction, Amounts of Transaction	$ 74,000	$ 26,000
1 Med S.A. [Member] \| Service Supply Agreement [Member] \| Asensus Surgical Europe S.à.R.L [Member]
Related Party Transaction, Expenses from Transactions with Related Party	$ 110,000	$ 12,000

Amount of transactions with related party during the financial reporting period.

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/disclosureRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 850
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (c)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6457730&loc=d3e39549-107864

Reference 2: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 850
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 3
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6457730&loc=d3e39603-107864

Name:	us-gaap_RelatedPartyTransactionAmountsOfTransaction
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration