Gall Bladder Removed In France By Doctor In New York

cybaea writes: "In this article, the BBC reports on the first successful major telesurgical operation. Doctors in the United States removed a gall bladder from a patient in eastern France by remotely operating a surgical robot arm." Note that this was using a "high speed optical link," not competing with email, viruses, or other things being sent on the Internet. Update: 09/19 17:05 PM GMT by T : Uh, that's "gall bladder," not "tumor." From this distance they look the same to me.

Comments

I heard...

[Rude Turnip]

that the surgeon yelled out "First Incision!"

Ouch

[SilentChris]

"by remotely operating a surgical robot arm"

Boy, a buffer overflow during that would be a bitch.

Re:Ouch

[fobbman]

A tragedy was narrowly averted when the surgeon was in the middle of an intricate micro-stitching and a casino pop-up ad obstructed his view. Thank goodness a forward-thinking assisting had their hand on the mouse ready to "X" it outta there.

Re:Ouch

[krlynch]

One eventual goals (and one of the reasons that the USDOD is paying big bucks for this kind of research) is to send these types of systems into "dangerous" areas where you wouldn't want to risk the safety of a specialist, or can't afford to send a specialist (major natural disasters, military campaigns, space explorations, remote research stations, etc.). It is unlikely that you will see many more gall bladder removals done in the middle of France with this technology. But you ARE likely to see, for example, soldiers patched up very close to the battle field, or researchers having cancer surgery done in the depths of the Antarctic winter when it is just too dangerous to try and either fly the patient out or the doctor in.

Better Picture of Robot in action

[FortKnox]

Here's a pic of the robot in action. Looks like that gall bladder was pretty big, or the frenchwoman isn't what I'd call "underweight".

Notice the three large arms sticking in? Gall Bladder surgery is usually arthroscopic. So, long distance surgery does have the drawback of more/bigger scars.

Pointless

[LordNimon]

I thought the whole point behind going to a specific doctor for a procedure was that he's far more knowledgeable about it than anyone nearby. Removing a gall bladder isn't exactly cutting-edge medicine.

But I would never go for this. Part of the advantage of having such a capable physician is that if anything goes wrong, he can take care of it. The robot arms restrict his options and make it more difficult to work in an emergency.

Not only that, but this involves a reliable high-speed connection. The only time this technology would be truly useful is if you were in the middle of nowhere and needed an operation. But if you're in the middle of nowhere, you'll never be able to get a reliable high-speed connection!

Re:Tumor != Gall Bladder

[fobbman]

Overheard in the surgeon's office in New York:

Doctor: Damn, I was supposed to remove a tumor?

medical transcript...

[turbine216]

here's the just-released transcription of the communciations between the surgeon and the patient:

DOCTOR: how r j00 feeling?

PATIENT: ok

DOCTOR: duz this hurt?

PATIENT: ouch

DOCTOR: roflmao

PATIENT: :(

(PATIENT signed off at 08:36 AM EST)

DOCTOR: hello?

DOCTOR: r u there?

DOCTOR: kewl
(DOCTOR signed off at 08:38 AM EST)

Re:Tumor != Gall Bladder

[kilgore_47]

(from the BBC article)
The procedure could make it possible for a surgeon to perform an operation on a patient anywhere in the world.

Sure... anywhere in the world equipped with a surgery-performing-robot, a secure guarenteed-to-be-up data line, and a team of backup doctors in case anything goes wrong.

Lag

[Reality Master 101]

If you figure 3000 miles both ways, then we're talking a minimum 0.03 seconds of lag. When you figure all the overhead, plus you don't get perfect speed, that could be a 0.1 seconds. That seems pretty significant if you are doing delicate surgery. It would be even worse if it was across the world.

As John Carmack once said, "The speed of light sucks".

Wireless?

[scott1853]

This would be really good if they could setup the system in something the size of an ambulance so people can be fixed up without having to make them endure a helicopter or ambulance ride to the nearest hospital. So is 802.11 ready for this?

Shouldn't that be a...

[szcx]

... Gaul bladder?

Medical arrogance.

[Rothfuss]

This is an absurd abuse of technology to further a doctor's career. There is no chance that this surgery was in the best interest of the 68 year old patient. Gall bladder surgery is reasonably common and could have been performed by any of a number of local doctors. This was *all* about getting a publication - which is sick. And I don't want to hear about how this technology will revolutionize anything, because the amount of logistical preparation needed on both sides will always make it easier to just fly a specialist to the scene and have her/him operate on the patient.

The best quote from the article...

"The time delay between the surgeon's movements and the return video image displayed on screen was less than 200 milliseconds. The estimated safe lag time is 330 ms."

Estimated safe lag? As determined by who? The NIST? The AMA? Probably the doctor, immediately after hearing that the time delay was 200ms.

-Rothfuss

Re:Tumor != Gall Bladder

[realdpk]

The procedure could make it possible for a surgeon to perform an operation on a patient anywhere in the world.

and here we are worrying about whether or not the govt will be able to open our *emails*...