Remote surgery facts for kids
Remote surgery (also known as cybersurgery or telesurgery) is when a doctor performs surgery on a patient who is not in the same room. It's like a surgeon working from a distance! This amazing technology uses robots, super-fast internet connections, and special computer systems.
Most surgical robots today are controlled by surgeons who are right next to the patient. But remote surgery lets expert doctors help patients all over the world. This means people can get the best medical care without having to travel far from their local hospital.
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Surgical Robots and Systems
Robots used in surgery have come a long way. One of the first systems was called ZEUS. Today, the da Vinci Surgical System is the main robot used in hospitals.
These robots help surgeons in many ways:
- They give surgeons a better view of the operation.
- They allow for very precise movements.
- They can make surgery less invasive, meaning smaller cuts for the patient.
Sometimes, two da Vinci systems can even work together! This "Dual Da Vinci" setup lets two surgeons operate on a patient at the same time. They can control different robot arms and talk to each other through headsets during the surgery.
The Cost of Remote Surgery
The ZEUS Robot Surgical System used to cost about $975,000. The da Vinci Surgical System is even more expensive, costing around $1 million.
The total cost of a remote operation includes:
- Paying for the surgical robot system.
- The surgeon's fees.
- The cost of the special high-speed internet technology, which can be $100,000 to $200,000 per year.
The Lindbergh Operation: A Big Step
The very first complete remote surgery happened on September 7, 2001. A French surgeon, Dr. Jacques Marescaux, was in New York City. He performed a cholecystectomy (gallbladder removal) on a 68-year-old woman. The patient was 6,230 kilometers away in Strasbourg, France!
This surgery was named Operation Lindbergh. It was named after Charles Lindbergh's famous first flight across the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Paris. Special fiber optic internet lines were used to make sure the connection was super fast and reliable. A modified Zeus robot system was also used. The operation was a big success!
After this, the same technology was used in Canada. Surgeons performed over 20 complex operations between Hamilton, Ontario, and North Bay, Ontario, a distance of about 400 kilometers. These operations used the regular public internet, but with special features to keep the connection strong. This showed that remote surgery could work in real-life situations, not just for a special test. It allowed expert surgeons to help patients and teach less experienced doctors without anyone needing to travel.
How Remote Surgery Is Used Today
Since Operation Lindbergh, remote surgery has been done many times in different places. For example, Dr. Anvari, a surgeon in Hamilton, Canada, has performed many remote surgeries on patients in North Bay, 400 kilometers away. Even though he uses a regular internet connection, he hasn't had any problems during his surgeries.
Technology is always improving, making remote surgery rooms very advanced. At the Advanced Surgical Technology Center in Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Canada, the surgical room can even respond to the surgeon's voice commands! This means the surgeon can control the lights, the operating table, and even the surgical tools just by speaking.
Remote surgery has many exciting possibilities:
- Battlefields: The military is interested in using it to help wounded soldiers quickly in mobile operating theatres.
- Accuracy: Robots can be very precise. A study in London, England, found that robots were better at targeting kidney stones during surgery than traditional methods.
- Space: In the future, remote surgery could even be used during long space missions!
In 2015, a test showed that the time delay (lag) from the internet in robotic surgery was not a problem. A hospital in Florida tested a simulated surgery with the surgeon over 1,200 miles away in Texas. They found the lag was very small, meaning telesurgery is generally safe for large areas.
Robots Operating Alone?
Some researchers are looking into a future where robots might perform surgeries with very little or no human help. One Italian surgeon has developed software that uses information from thousands of past operations. The idea is that this could one day make complicated surgeries available to many more people, especially in places without good medical facilities.
Feeling and Seeing in Remote Surgery
To do delicate operations, surgeons need to "feel" what they are doing. For example, knowing how much pressure to use when handling something fragile like an egg. In remote surgery, doctors can't directly touch the patient.
- Force-feedback (Haptics): Special systems called haptics let surgeons "feel" what the robot is doing. They provide a responsive force that makes it seem like the surgeon is touching the patient's body. This helps them feel tendons and muscles. However, these systems are very sensitive to any time delays in the internet connection.
- Depth Perception: It's also important to know how deep to cut. Humans use binocular vision (seeing with two eyes) to easily judge depth in a 3D world. But when the view is on a flat computer screen, it can be harder to tell how deep something is.
Challenges and Limitations
Even with all its benefits, remote surgery is not yet used everywhere. There are still some challenges to overcome:
- Cost: The systems and high-speed connections are very expensive.
- Secure Connections: It's crucial to have very fast and secure internet connections to prevent hacking or disruptions.
- Training: Doctors and medical staff need special training to use these systems.
- Global Compatibility: Equipment needs to work together across different countries.
- Backup: An anesthesiologist (who gives medicine to make the patient sleep) and a backup surgeon still need to be present with the patient. This is in case the robot or connection has a problem.
Even with these challenges, Operation Lindbergh showed that the technology exists today to bring expert medical care to far-off places.
See also
- Waldo (short story) by Robert A. Heinlein.
