British surgeons have successfully performed the world’s first robotic operation inside the eye, potentially revolutionising the way such conditions are treated. The procedure was carried out at John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, where surgeons welcomed its success.
This miniature eye-probing bot is meant to provide greater precision and less human error than a doctor’s fleshy fingers, but it still relies on a human surgeon controlling it using joysticks, with some help from motion-sensing algorithms. “That computer can recognize when the surgeon’s about to make a motion that’s gonna go outside and puncture the lens, for example, and stop that motion,
It’s controlled by ultra-thin “tendon-like cables,” the width of human hair but stronger than kevlar or steel. NASA uses this stuff—gel spun polyethylene—on some of their solar sails, Wagner says.
Axsis’ small size could make it more cost-efficient and accessible to hospitals and surgical programs that might not be able to fund or house expensive, room-dominating robots like the da Vinci system. It could open up a new world of miniature robotics in the operating room.
