An investigation into whether robotic surgery can be controlled via satellite and the internet has found that quality of surgery is not compromised. Robots that perform surgery can be driven by surgeons that direct the operation from a computer console. However, in most cases, the surgeon is seated within the theatre - only a few metres away from the patient.
One problem previously identified has been the delay between the image of the patient being captured and the surgeon sending the instruction to the robot. The surgical trials showed that the delays were much greater with a satellite link than the Internet (600ms vs 55 ms respectively). However, the surgeon quickly became used to this and there were no differences in the quality of the surgery using the two forms of communication.
The trials were carried out by a team of 11 researchers working jointly with: the Department of Medical Biophysics, The University of Western Ontario, CSTAR (Canadian Surgical Technologies & Advanced Robotics) and the London Health Sciences Centre.
