This new surgical robot just outperformed human surgeons
Scientists in the US have developed an autonomous surgical robot designed specifically to suture – or stitch up – soft tissue. And in testing, this surgical machine – which, it should be emphasised, operates entirely independently of human control – outperformed experienced human surgeons when operating on pig specimens.
"Our results demonstrate the potential for autonomous robots to improve the efficacy, consistency, functional outcome, and accessibility of surgical techniques," said associate surgeon-in-chief Peter C. Kim from the Children's National Health System in Washington. "The intent of this demonstration is not to replace surgeons, but to expand human capacity and capability through enhanced vision, dexterity and complementary machine intelligence for improved surgical outcomes."
While robot-assisted surgery is something that's existed for years, it's never been capable of handling the challenges of soft tissue, which shifts around as it's touched and operated on. But the new system, called Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR), is smart enough to factor this complexity into its own movement calculations.
"Until now, autonomous robot surgery has been limited to applications with rigid anatomy, such as bone cutting, because they are more predictable," said one of the team, Axel Krieger. "By using novel tissue tracking and applied force measurement, coupled with suture automation software, our robotic system can detect arbitrary tissue motions in real time and automatically adjust."
The STAR's tracking system uses near-infrared fluorescent (NIRF) markers to give it a sense of its patient in three dimensions, while an algorithm that guides the robot detects changes in force and makes adjustments in real time as tissue moves.
In testing, the researchers compared STAR's handiwork to that of an experienced surgeon operating on both inanimate pig tissue, and live, anaesthetised pig specimens. The procedure, called anastomosis, involves stitching up two tubular structures, such as blood vessels.
The results, reported in Science Translational Medicine, compared things such as the quality of the suturing, along with the amount of time the surgery took, and the number of mistakes made.
When it came to the quality of suturing, the robot beat the human surgeon, with more consistent stitching and less mistakes made. But in terms of the amount of time the surgery takes to perform, the machine came in second place. In the test involving live subjects, STAR took 35 minutes at its fastest, whereas the human surgeon only needed 8 minutes.
The researchers are looking for a commercial partner to help them bring their technology into hospitals, and they say STAR could be stitching people up within two years if all goes well.
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