How Robots are Enabling Superhuman Performance of Surgical Practices?
Published on : Tuesday 05-05-2020
Robot-assisted surgery, or surgical robots, has significantly revolutionized the surgical tasks. This has transformed the way surgeons perform surgery, and operate and recover patients. Surgical robots make it possible to perform surgical procedures in a minimally invasive way that would have to be performed with open surgery previously. Surgery processes being done by robots allow surgeons to be extremely accurate during complex procedures, including cardiothoracic surgery.
Highly trained surgeons who utilize a robotic system perform Robotic-assisted surgery. It delivers many benefits to patients compared to open surgery, such as hospitalization with a short time, reducing pain and discomfort, faster recovery time, smaller incisions that result in a minimized risk of infection, reduced blood loss and transfusions, minimal scarring, and much more.
In general, robotic surgery is an advanced form of minimally invasive or laparoscopic surgery. To control or handle surgical robots, surgeons use a computer-controlled robot that helps them in certain surgical procedures. The robot’s hands have a high degree of adroitness, enabling surgeons to operate in very tight spaces in the body that would otherwise only be accessible through open surgery.
For surgical tool positioning, most robotic systems are image-guided platforms that are specially designed to precisely detect and target a given site on the body. The robot directs surgeons' movements and avoids them from deviating from the planned insertion path. Entirely different from open surgery, robotic-assisted or minimally invasive surgery results in smaller incisions with less pain and scarring.
Robotic-assisted surgery also allows surgeons to do complex surgical tasks through tiny incisions using robotic technology. Surgical robots are self-powered, computer-controlled devices that can be programmed to support the positioning and manipulation of surgical instruments. This provides surgeons with better accuracy, suppleness, and control.
For example, Simulated Surgical Systems, a US-based company, works on the development of simulation for robot-assisted surgery. The company offers safe, practical, and efficient robot-assisted surgery training to apprentice surgeons. This approach lowers surgical error and provides robot-assisted surgical education to train all kinds of eventualities. Similarly, a California-based company, THINK Surgical creates robotic surgical systems for orthopedic surgery. The company’s system comprises two components, a 3D pre-operative planning workstation for surgery planning and a computer-assisted tool for precise cavity and surface preparation for hip and knee replacement surgeries.
Although, most robotic surgery assistants facilitate minimally invasive access to the human body that lets surgeons to be extremely accurate during complex procedures. We believe this technology would be effective in the coming days and make surgery safer and quicker and help in speeding up patient recovery and improving medical outcomes.