(The Gist of Science Reporter) Tele-robotic Surgery: Replicating Surgeon’s Hands Minus the Tremors

[August-2020]

Tele-robotic Surgery: Replicating Surgeon’s Hands Minus the Tremors

The cutting-edge of remote medical practice can be seen in the emerging field of telerobotic surgery where a surgeon in high demand can perform procedures in multiple distant locations on the same day. Robotic Surgery is a method of performing surgery using very small tools attached to a robotic arm.
The surgeon controls and manipulates the arm from a computer console. An electronic eye in the robot arm sends back a high definition 3-D image, magnified 10 times, which the surgeon can view on the computer screen: something not possible in conventional surgery. The surgeon uses controls in the console to manipulate special surgical instruments that are smaller and more flexible than the human hand. The robot replicates the surgeon’s hand movements and eliminates human shortcomings like hand tremors.
The first robotic surgery (of the prostate) was performed at AIIMS, Delhi, in July 2006, using the Da Vinci robotic system.
The world’s first-in-human robotic coronary surgery using a system from the US-based Corindus Vascular Robotics was performed in India on December 4 and 5, 2018. Five patients in the Apex Heart Institute in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, underwent procedures performed by Dr Tejas Patel, Chief Interventional Cardiologist of the Apex Heart Institute, from inside the Swaminarayan Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar, 32 km away.
Says Dr Patel: “The first human case of remote robotic PCI represents a landmark event for interventional medicine. The application of telerobotics in India has the potential to impact a significant number of lives by providing access to care that may not otherwise have been possible. For the first time in cardiology’s history, India will shine for this ground-breaking innovation.”