Robots may allow surgery in space and on battle fields

• Small robots designed by University of Nebraska researchers may allow doctors on Earth to help perform surgery on patients in space.
• The tiny, wheeled robots, which are about 3 inches tall and as wide as a lipstick case, can be slipped into small incisions and computer-controlled by surgeons in different locations.
• Oleynikov is a specialist in minimally invasive and computer-assisted surgery at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.
• Delays in communication because of the distance to space would mean surgeons on earth would have tell astronauts what commands to give the robots, Oleynikov said.
• However on earth, the surgeons can control the robots themselves from other locations, Oleynikov said.
• On battlefields, the robots could enable surgeons in other places to work on injured soldiers on the front line, said Shane Farritor, a university engineering professor who helped design them.
• Researchers plan to seek federal regulatory approval early next year.
• Tests on animals have been successful, Oleynikov said, and tests on humans in England will begin in the spring.
• The camera-carrying robots can provide views of affected areas and the ones with surgical tools will be able to maneuver inside the body in ways surgeons' hands can't, Oleynikov said.
• Because several robots can be inserted through one incision, they could reduce the amount and size of cuts needed for surgery, which would decrease recovery time, Oleynikov said.
• The views from the camera-carrying robots are better than the naked eye, Oleynikov said, because they send back color images that are magnified.
• A robot capable of doing biopsies is in the works and another is being designed that can be inserted into a person's stomach via the esophagus.
• The robots themselves currently cost about $200 each, Farritor said.