A surgical robot has connected pieces of intestines together in the abdominal cavity of living pigs. The robot needed little help from human doctors.
The keyhole surgery, which was successfully performed by the robot, is an important step towards human trials, according to researchers.
It’s not the first time a robot has set foot in the operating room. Robots controlled by human surgeons are increasingly common. In addition, some parts of operations are now automated. However, this only concerns interventions on parts of the body that do not change shape unpredictably, such as bone.
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intestinal suture
Engineer Justin Opferman of Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, U.S., and his colleagues now have a similar robot learned to perform a bowel anastomosis. In this procedure, a piece of intestine is removed and the two separate pieces are then reconnected. The surgery is particularly risky, as a small leak in the gut can lead to serious complications.
The robot performed its operations on four pigs, placing a total of 86 stitches. In two thirds of the cases, the robot set the suture independently. At other times, the robot had to be guided to the correct place before placing the stitch.
One week after surgery, the operated tissues were examined. The results were comparable to those of human surgeons.
moving lot
In 2016, the same research group had already taught a robot to perform intestinal surgery on pigs by pulling the intestine outside the abdominal cavity and then suturing it. This time, the robot completed the task with keyhole surgery, in which only a small opening is made in the abdomen. That is a fine piece of work, because the organs in the abdomen move rhythmically with the animal’s breathing.
‘Everything in the patient moves, so you can’t plan your actions in advance,’ says Opferman. “If you’re operating on soft tissues like guts, they move away from you when you touch them. So the robot has to constantly adjust its plan to determine what to do and how to complete the task.’
While stitching, the robot was guided by images from a 3D camera mounted on its arm. In this way he was able to map the constantly changing environment inside the abdomen.
robotic surgeon
The researchers used a common medical robot from the manufacturer Kuka. They think they could install the used software on any comparable machine
Opferman calls the trial the first step towards fully independent robotic surgery in humans. The team will gradually train the robot to perform increasingly larger parts of the operation, such as opening and closing the abdominal cavity. The ultimate goal is that he can carry out the entire procedure. Human trials, in which robots perform part of the operation, could start within five years, Opferman says.