Slashdot Mirror
First Zero-Gravity Surgery a Success
MattSparkes writes "Slashdot reported earlier this week that the first ever zero gravity surgery was to take place. Today the team of doctors successfully carried out the operation, removing a benign tumour from the forearm of a 46-year-old volunteer.
"Now we know that a human being can be operated on in space without too many difficulties," team leader Dominique Martin said after the flight.
The studies show that minor surgery is possible even during long-term inhabitation of space."
The first 2G surgery was ALSO a success.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Minor operations might be fine, but when you need to work on something that can spill lots of blood, like a wound or heart surgery, that might be a little more difficult to control were blood shoots off too.
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I agree that this system may not scale so simply. In addition to the issue of time scale, the doctors mentioned that they, in at least some cases, will be using robots operated remotely rather than the actual surgeons being present on board. One could argue that the success of this experimental surgery suggests that other zero gravity surgeries aren't out of the question. However, it's extremely difficult to predict how subtle differences involved in going from parabolic flight to space flight will affect such a complicated thing as surgery.
(( (CRAYON) )) >
There aren't too many ways to hurt yourself in a small capsule. Of course, if there is anything serious, odds are you're already dead from vacuum or cold. This is a milestone towards proving that a trip to Mars can be feasible and that things that crop up along the way that are not serious in and of themselves can be dealt with on the voyage by a flight surgeon or a medic.
I would bet it hasn't. Shagging a member of a small, close-knit team that's focused on a very dangerous, mentally and physically demanding mission is a huge no-no.
:)
Astronauts are going to be very highly trained and motivated. No woman who has gotten herself that far would bang someone on a mission, and no guy that intelligent and ambitious would risk his entire life and career on a stupid stunt like that.
My opinion of course
What does this really prove?
If there are complications its as likely that they are from the gravity fluctuations as from the near-zero gravity. There could still be complications with near zero g surgery, but they were mitigated by only being in zero g for 30 second intervals.
If they are looking at the procedures of surgery in near zero gravity, what have they learned? According to the original article this is preparation for tele-robotic surgery, not preperation for surgeons in space. So what lessons from this would apply to a robot?
I understand baby steps into these things, but this just does not seem all that useful.
Wouldnt it be more useful to send a rat up to the space station and walk astronauts through a procedure? Sure it would be a more expensive (the fuel to get a 1 pound rat into space vs the jet fuel and crew for 6 hours) but I would think the results would be much more telling.
At least thats my professional non-astronaut non-surgeon non-scientist non-accountant opinion.
By the same logic, if NASA ordered them to do it, they would do so without hesitation. They may not be a military outfit, but they are dominated by military men, and perform military operations.
I did hear that they supposedly shot a porn in a flight just like the surgeons. Never saw it, and wouldn't want to. They call those things "Vomit Comets" for a reason. I half expected to hear the doctors puked on their patient. They must have trained in Zero-G ahead of time.
There's also a document floating around that discusses an alleged series of experiments in the cargo bay of the shuttle. Sex in Zero-G sounds awesome, but the lack gravity would make it tricky to get any leverage. The doc claims they tried several things, including ropes and a tube large enough to hold both "subjects." The document's probably a fake, but it does raise enough salient points to be an interesting read. Happy hunting.
Shaw's Principle: Build a system even a fool could use, and only a fool would want to use it.
From the summary: The studies show that minor surgery is possible even during long-term inhabitation of space."
I love this kind of marketing-speak. People are told, "X is possible" and they assume it means "X is routine." What it actually means is, "Under the most carefully controlled conditions we tried X and didn't fail completely."
Just think of all the times marketing has pushed for early release of an insufficiently tested app and you'll get the picture.
This is an interesting and important step forward in proving that zero-g surgery is not impossible, but it is a long way from proving that zero-g surgery will ever be possible in most cases of interest.
For example, removal of a benign tumour could wait until return to Earth in most cases. It remains to be seen if there is any significant overlap in a) surgeries that can be done in zero-g and b) surgeries that need to be done in zero-g. Although I suspect most laproscopic procedures will be fairly easily adapted to zero-g, it just remains to be seen.
Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
The next logical step is not an operation on a human in space, but on a small animal (such as a mouse or rat), since it would be disposable if there were complications.
However, the graphicness of animal testing is usually swept under the carpet, and is not inherently compatible with the publicness of recent space missions. The anti-animal-testing lobby will have an easy time of fighting such a test, especially if the scientists want to keep the animal alive for inspection (which begs the question how do you train a rat to urinate into a suction tube).
As for remote surgeries by robot, these have been in development for years, particularly for battlefield implementations.
As for blood, yes that is a problem, as 100% of blood would have to be contained; you couldn't risk it getting into the space-computers or leaving potentially-infectious traces on board. One spurt would be a big challenge.
- RG>
Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
Just to keep things in perspective: the intervention they did is the removal of a "lipoma", which is like a dense hazelnut-sized ball of fatty tissue. It is barely more complicated that cutting out a tiny patch of skin to remove a mole.
I know a surgeon who has a buch of lipomas (like moles, some people just tend to get those benign tumors), and who routinely removes them on himself (only needs assistance if the lipoma is on his arm and he needs a second hand).
That is to say, I am not that impressed, this is not that revolutionary.