World's first all-robotic surgery performed in Canada
Canadian physicians have successfully performed the world's first completely robotic surgery and anesthesia.
Specialists from McGill University used the DaVinci surgical robot -- which, as you might suspect, lets surgeons work from remote locations -- alongside an anesthesia robot nicknamed "McSleepy" (itself the world's first robot for the task) to perform the surgery on a prostatectomy patient at Montreal General Hospital.
The doctors said the exercise was inevitable, since medical robots have proven themselves to be more precise and safe than humans.
“The DaVinci allows us to work from a workstation operating surgical instruments with delicate movements of our fingers with a precision that cannot be provided by humans alone,” said urologist-in-chief A. Aprikian in a statement.
The team of surgeons operated the robots' arms from a dedicated workstation offering high-definition, three-dimensional video of the operating room.
Despite the robots' large footprint in the room, the surgeons said automated anesthesia is a welcome addition, allowing for fine-tuning in an otherwise very sensitive job. After all, not enough anesthesia means pain for the patient; similarly, too much can be fatal.
Their surgical success in using both robots opens the door for more testing at a larger scale for different kinds of patients and types of surgery.
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com