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TELESURGERY
To many the idea of robots performing open-heart surgery sounds like science fiction but recently this idea has become
a reality. With the invention of the da Vinci Surgical System
(named after the famous renaissance inventor/engineer/painter Leonardo da Vinci),
introduced in 1999 by the California company Intuitive
Surgical, surgeons can operate on patients while sitting at a computer council from across the room where they control
a robot much like playing a video game.
The da Vinci robot has three arms; one carrying a pair of miniature cameras to produce a 3D image of inside the
patient's body, which the surgeon views on a monitor, and the other two which perform the operation through tiny
incisions only eight millimetres across.
There are many benefits to this surgical system. For example, difficult surgical procedures will be performed more
easily and routinely therefore certain procedures only performed by a few highly specialized surgeons will be performed
by more surgeons at more institutions thus making these operations more accessible to patients. Another benefit to this
new development is the reduction in the
invasive
nature of operations. Only tiny incisions need to be made for the small
articulate
robotic arms to perform the operation, reducing the risk of other complications.
What this means for the future of robotic surgery? If operations can be made by a surgeon from across a room than one
would suppose that the operation could be made from another room or even from another country. The term "telesurgery"
was coined in 1995 by the professor of surgery at Yale University Col. Richard Satava when the idea was expressed by a
medical student that s doctor could perform surgery from his own home when this technology was first developing. The
implications for this technology include the possibility of operating on residents of a remote village who do not have
the access to a specialized surgeon, or during war a wounded soldier could be taken into an army vehicle equipped with
the robotic system while the surgeon may operate from one safe location in an efficient manner on many wounded soldiers.
Astronauts could be operated on in outer space.
The main problem at the moment is the price. These robots are very expensive. Another factor needing improvement is the
lag time from when the surgeon sees the scalpel move to when it actually makes the cut. The lag time must be less than
approximately one fifth of a second or the surgeon is at risk at making a cut in the wrong place. There is a great deal
of data being transmitted during the operation, most of which is created by the video, not the instructions for the robot,
which takes some time to be processed. At the moment, the maximum distance from which the robot can operate is about 300
kilometres over a wired connection or 35 km via wireless connection.
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