Robotic Surgery to the rescue
U0204500Ong Phian Ting
Surgery has always been an intimidating experience for those who have to go through it. Just imagine another person standing beside you and cutting you up, not knowing if they will make a mistake in the process. The though alone is enough to send shiver down one’s spine.
Fortunately, advance in robotic has come to the rescue of these patient. The Da Vinci Surgical System from Intuitive Surgical Inc is an assistant to a surgeon during surgery. It acts as an extension to the surgeon’s hand. Instead of the surgeon holding the tools that go into the patient’s body, the robotic arms now hold the tools, while the surgeon control the arms through remote control. A video showing the overview of the system could be view at http://www.intuitivesurgical.com/products/da_vinci_video_overview.aspx
The advantage of the system is numerous to both patient and surgeon. It allows the surgeon to virtually place their hands inside the patient without the need for large incisions. This minimizes the chances of the surgeon making a mistake that could harm the patient or even cause fatality. At the same time, it also helps patient to heal faster due to the smaller incisions. Another advantage is that surgeons can now scale, or ratio, their finger movement to that of the robotic arms. A movement of inches at the console can be scaled down to centimeters in the patient. This gives great control and precision to the surgery. The system also re-introduces precision to an elderly surgeon, who has all those years of experience but has lost some dexterity. The world first surgery using this system could be view at http://www.stronghealth.com/services/surgical/roboticvideo.cfmReferences:
http://www.intuitivesurgical.com/products/davinci_surgicalsystem/index.aspx
http://futurefeeder.com/index.php/archives/2005/07/07/da-vinci-robot-surgery-system
