Canadian robot performs brain surgery
p2pnet news | Cool Stuff:- Way back, I specialised in writing about surgical procedures and I remember watching a neuro-surgeon in Toronto save a woman’s life by clipping off an aneurysm when it burst during the operation.
His vision was totally obscured by blood and he had to work by touch alone. It was amazing and it’d be interesting, and relevant, to see how the University of Calgary’s image-guided neuroArm would have handled that desperate situation.
The robot, developed by neurosurgeon Dr Garnette Sutherland and his team, successfully removed a tumour from the brain of 21-year-old chef Paige Nickason from Calgary.
Controlled by a surgeon from a computer workstation, neuroArm operates together with real-time MR imaging, giving surgeons unprecedented detail and control, says the university.
This gives them the ability them to manipulate tools at a microscopic scale, moving surgery from the organ towards the cell level, says Sutherland, who’s professor of neurosurgery, University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine and the Calgary Health Region.
NeuroArm mimics the movements of the surgeon, “with incredible precision while sensors and microphones recreate the sights, sounds and touch of surgery,” says the CBC.
Building a robot is complex to begin with, says project robotics engineer Alex Greer, going on:
“Adding the constraints of operating in a sterile operating room, within an MRI machine and alongside the other people involved in surgery makes it a very complex environment”.
By acquiring first-hand knowledge of the demands in the operating room, Greer and Paul McBeth, the first U of C neuroArm robotics engineer, “acted as the bridge between the physicians, scientists and engineers involved in the project,” says the University.
“Doctors and engineers are good at what they do but they speak different languages,” Greer stated.
“It was scary at first,” the Times Colonist has Nickason saying of the idea of being operated on by a robot.
She had more traditional surgery two months ago to remove a tumour the size of a small fist in the back of her brain, says the story, adding:
“This time she was offered the robotic surgery to operate on a tumour that was affecting her sense of smell – a vital sense for a chef.”
Click here for a neuroArm video.
JN
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CBC – Scientology losing its hold on Packer, friends say, May 16, 2008
University of Calgary – World’s first image-guided surgical robot to enhance accuracy and safety of brain surgery
Times Colonist – Robot removes Calgary woman’s brain tumour, May 17, 2008
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May 19th, 2008 at 9:53 am
You could cotrol the robot remotly via internet if you don’t access internet via Comcast of course!
They arew capable to throttle the conection by sending illegaly some reset packets!
May 19th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Today it’s Comcast, tomorrow all other ISPs.
Imagine when they get computers powerful enough to control the robot and machines do 100% of the surgery! That’ll probably be 50 years from now. Then 100 years after that when those robots become inexpensive!
May 21st, 2008 at 12:44 am
It could also be done with online collaboration from other specialists, if the co-operation were there. Sorry about the awful pun. Worry about copyright complaints later. This procedure could be more efficient and precise than with human intervention alone. Of course, far better to avoid tumours in the first place by looking after one’s health. Not always easy.