In an operation believed to the very first of its kind, a team of tech-friendly doctors from the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine have successfully removed a brain tumour from a patient with the able assistance of a remotely-controlled robotic surgeon.
Doctors use robotic arm to perform delicate brain surgery. Image: NeuroArm.
By using an imaging screen and a control system similar to that found in modern videogames, the attending doctors were able to accurately guide the surgical instruments of ‘NeuroArm’ throughout a nine-hour surgery to remove an egg-shaped tumour from the brain of 21-year-old Paige Nickason.
The integration of NeuroArm into the operating procedure allowed the Canadian surgical team to gain the advantage of performing tiny and delicate movements with considerably more precision than would be accomplished by human hands.
Specifically, NeuroArm’s level of operational precision can be measured in increments of 50 microns -- with a micron being the equivalent of one millionth of a metre. Conversely, a human hand can typically only achieve levels of precision measured to increments of one or two millimetres.
“Paige’s brain surgery represents a technical achievement in the use of image-guided robotic technology to remove a relatively complex brain tumour,” commented professor of neurosurgery Garnette Sutherland in a Times Online report. “Everything went like clockwork.”
Clearly thrilled with the positive result, professor Sutherland also noted that, when it comes to complex operations such as the one performed on Nickason, it is only a matter of time before the emergence of robotic surgeons leads to the displacement of conventional doctors when it comes to hands-on participation.
“The hands of a brain surgeon have their limitations. They get tired and there are places in the brain where we cannot go that the robot will reach,” he offered. “It is a fact that robots are as accurate and sometimes more accurate than surgeons and so it’s logical to let them get on with doing brain surgery under the direction of the surgeon.”
Following the NeuroArm’s success, the university has said that it already has a number of other patients looking to benefit from the robotic surgeon’s skills. The breakthrough device, which costs a little less than $1 million USD to create, is also attracting attention from neurosurgeons based in the United Kingdom.
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