In a first, surgeons use robot to conduct eye surgery
For the first time ever, robots have been used to conduct eye surgery. The trial, which was published in the "Nature Biomedical Engineering" magazine, took place at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital and was supported by the National Institute for Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre. The surgery highlighted huge robotic potential in medicine and delicate operations.
The surgery was a success
Of the 12 patients involved, half were operated on manually by surgeons, while the other half were operated on with the help of a robot after they gave permission for the same. The operation, which involved removing a membrane from the back of the eye, was conducted using surgical devices designed by Dutch medical robotics firm Preceyes.
The doctors were mighty impressed
In three patients, the second phase of the surgery also involved the robot inserting a fine needle under their retina to dissolve blood. Even though the median time for the robot-assisted surgery was longer (4 minutes and 55 seconds) than the traditional method (1 minute and 20 seconds), with the former, surgeons were "able to perform the procedure with equal or better efficacy."
Robotic eye surgery can treat forms of blindness in future
Robert MacLaren, Professor of Ophthalmology, said, "Our next step will be to use the robotic surgical device for precise and minimally traumatic delivery of a gene therapy to the retina, which will be another first-in-man achievement and is set to commence in early 2019."
