Jeremy Russell, CEO of surgical robotic specialist OR Productivity,discusses the future of medical roboticsand the role the technology will have in delivering improved surgery outcomes.
It has been just over 36 years since the first laparoscopic removal of an appendix was performed in Germany. This caused such controversy that the then-president of the German Surgical Association demanded that the surgeon be struck off.
Little more than a third of a century later, close to 10 million laparoscopic procedures are projected to be undertaken this year alone, and an estimated 750,000 of them will be conducted by the Da Vinci surgical robot. So, as surgery becomes increasingly ‘robotic’, it’s worth pausing to review the benefits and trends of robotic surgeries.
Firstly, robotic surgery is not really ‘robotic’ but a ‘master-slave’ relationship with a human surgeon. Most of what we call ‘robotic’ surgery essentially involves a mechanical device being controlled directly by a surgeon, which allows them to conduct a specific task more efficiently and accurately.
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