11-23-2005, 08:51 PM
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No blood on surgeons' hands
No blood on surgeons' hands
http://australianit.news.com.au/arti...E15306,00.html
NOVEMBER 01, 2005
MEET Dr Robot: about the size of a lipstick case, it can drive around inside your body and serve as the eyes or hands of a surgeon who could be thousands of miles away.
University of Nebraska researchers have developed the tiny machines, which could allow doctors to remotely conduct surgery on battlefields or in space. "We think this is going to replace open surgery," Dr Dmitry Oleynikov says.
Oleynikov is a minimally invasive and computer assisted surgery specialist at the University of Nebraska Medical Centre.
The tiny, wheeled robots, which are about 7.6cm tall, can be slipped into small incisions and computer-controlled by surgeons in various locations.
Some are equipped with cameras and lights and can send back images to surgeons.
Others have surgical tools allowing them to make incisions, deliver medicine and perform other tasks.
Oleynikov said the robots allowed surgeons to operate more precisely, and to see more clearly, than they can with laparoscopic techniques, in which doctors use tools attached to long tubes to conduct minimally invasive operations.
Robotic surgical systems already in use in the US use robotic arms that enter the body through small incisions and perform delicate work.
The University of Nebraska researchers say their robots are easier to manoeuvre inside the body, so they may need fewer incisions.
On battlefields, the robots could enable surgeons in other places to work on injured soldiers on the front line, says Shane Farritor, an engineering professor who helped to design them.
Researchers say they are planning to seek federal regulatory approval early next year for the robots, which are designed for one-time use.
Oleynikov says tests on animals have been successful and tests on humans in Britain will begin next year, when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration plans to teach astronauts to use the robots so surgeries may one day be performed in space.
Delays in communication because of the distance to space would mean surgeons on Earth would have to tell astronauts what commands to give the robots, Oleynikov says.
A robot capable of doing biopsies is in the works and another is being designed that can be inserted into a person's stomach via the aesophagus.
Researchers said they will be able to create smaller robots once they start making them in larger quantities.
Eventually, Oleynikov says, the tiny robots may enable surgeons to work without ever placing their hands in patients' bodies.
"That's the goal," Oleynikov says. "It's getting easier.
"We can do even more with these devices."
AP
The Australian
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