Robots in the Operating Room
Prostate Operations are now being done with a $1.5 Mil. four-armed robot.
One such system was unveiled at Sutter Hospital in Sacramento and the
SacBee was on hand for a report:
bq.
Robo doc debuts at Sutter
Real surgeon remotely controls tiny devices that reduce damage
bq. It is the rare surgery that lures onlookers to the operating room window and commands the rapt attention of the cancer center's medical director.
But that's what happened last week when 75-year-old Edwin Carlson became Sutter General Hospital's first patient to go under the, well, four-armed robot.
bq. For several hours the massive piece of machinery pulled and prodded, cut, cauterized and stitched until Carlson's diseased prostate gland was safely out of his body.
bq. The robot wasn't acting alone. A Los Angeles-area surgeon with expertise in robot-assisted prostatectomy sat at a console several feet away operating its arms. Like a conductor directing a symphony, his flittering hands maneuvered tiny instruments that had been inserted through small incisions in Carlson's abdomen.
bq. The surgeon's delicate movements were translated by the robot's arms, which looked like a giant tarantula crawling above the anesthetized patient.
Click for full-size image
Posted by DaveH at January 23, 2005 4:11 PM
