Robotic Surgery

Raven42rac writes "Interestling article on my local newspaper's website dealing with a remote controlled, voice controlled, three dimensional surgery assisting robot."

Comments

College paper has further coverage of Zeus company

[jasonla]

I attend UC Santa Barbara, and I work on the student newspaper, the Daily Nexus. We did an article on the technology and the company responsible for it a long time ago when Computer Motion made it's first attempt at telesurgery. Here's the article, yes, that's my name in the byline.

http://www.dailynexus.com/science/2001/1555.html

Very useful

[NMerriam]

We use these at work and they are very good -- Intuitive Surgical and Computer Motion both have systems that are getting use in ORs all over the place.

The only drawback is the cost and training, but once you've spent the million dollars to get it, you open up a lot of opportunities for surgical education and easing the burdon on doctors (as well as removing all notions of "distance" from the question of timely assistance).

For those wondering about the voice control, it only recognizes a dozen commands, and is totally speaker-independant. You'd say "Aesop...Move in" and it will move the camera in a few millimeters. The nice thing is that you can save positions and pricisely jump back and forth at looking in different areas in a half-second. It does have pressure sensors, so you can't do too much acidentally.

Also, realize that sometimes you can spend literally 16+ hours on one surgery -- having the robot do the direct manipulation means you can switch surgeons every few hours or get up and walk around without letting go of the surgical instruments and possibly abrading something while handing them off.

After watching a few dozen of these surgeries, i'd honestly say that i'd rather have my gall bladder removed by hermes/aesop/Zeus/daVinci than by a surgeon's hands...

Re:Hmm

[eggstasy]

I guess he means that the robot has a full 3 degrees of freedom of movement: an arm that can move left and right, back and forth, up or down.
A "2 dimension" robot would only be able to use two of the above pairs, a "1d" bot would only use one of the above, but I guess a "4d" bot would have to travel through time :)

Re:does it use windows?

[eggstasy]

These kinds of things usually use embedded, real-time systems, tailor-made for that specific hardware, and mathematically proven not to crash.
So no, it probably doesn't run windows.

2nd Hand Experience

[Pave Low]

My girlfriend is a PHD student, and she is currently doing research in medical technology. Recently she's had a demonstration of this device. After that demonstration, they were allowed to handle the machine and try some manipulations.

From what I understood:
1. This is not an intelligent robot, but a tool for the surgeon. Sensors are connected to the surgeons hands and arms, and they are transmitted to the operational device. It still is the surgeon which does the operation.

2. Resistance, which I saw mentioned in one of the other responses, is simulated to the surgeon doing the operation. Thus, a more 'natural' feel is created.

3. This device and devices like it are great tools for Minimal Invasive Surgery (MIS). Because the opening doesn't have to be large at all, and devices can be sterilized, this greatly reduces the risk of infection.

4. If developments continue along this line, and there is no reason to believe they won't, operation rooms may become obsolete for many operations: a closed sterile device is pressed against the area where the opening has to come. All that has to be sterile is the insides of the operation device.