An exhibition at the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons recently examined the question: “Are we on the edge of a robot revolution in medicine?” LOUISE FRAMPTON reports.
The “Sci-Fi Surgery: Medical Robots” exhibition explored the pioneering field of medical robotics from the first autonomous device used for transurethral resection of the prostate, to visionary mini-robots that are designed to crawl, swim and explore inside the human body. Since the first industrial manufacturing arms appeared in factories almost fifty years ago, robots have been designed to perform tasks deemed too tedious, dangerous or precise for humans. They have been used to build micro-processors, explore space and defuse bombs. Only more recently have robots been used to tackle major medical challenges, but they are now used in a range of surgical specialties, including orthopaedics, neurosurgery and many minimally invasive procedures. Medical robots have been designed to increase surgeons’ dexterity and control, to support busy nursing staff, or to help doctors make diagnoses. Some are proven technologies, while others are still at the experimental stage.
Surgical robots 1985-2009
The exhibition commentary explained that there is no set definition for what constitutes a “robot”, but it is generally used to describe a machine – usually computer-controlled – that is capable of movement and interaction with its environment. The word “robot” comes from the Czech “robota”, meaning labour. The term was popularised by Karel Capek’s play “Rossum’s Universal Robots” (1921) where it described factory made, artificial workers. The first surgical robots were based on industrial machines. In 1985, surgeons used a robot called the Puma 560 to position a needle during a brain biopsy. The “Sci-Fi Surgery: Medical Robots” exhibition explored the pioneering field of medical robotics from the first autonomous device used for transurethral resection of the prostate, to visionary mini-robots that are designed to crawl, swim and explore inside the human body. Since the first industrial manufacturing arms appeared in factories almost fifty years ago, robots have been designed to perform tasks deemed too tedious, dangerous or precise for humans. They have been used to build micro-processors, explore space and defuse bombs. Only more recently have robots been used to tackle major medical challenges, but they are now used in a range of surgical specialties, including orthopaedics, neurosurgery and many minimally invasive procedures. Medical robots have been designed to increase surgeons’ dexterity and control, to support busy nursing staff, or to help doctors make diagnoses. Some are proven technologies, while others are still at the experimental stage.
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