Originally published August 28 2005
Robots assist with key jobs in surgery
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Robots have been used on patients receiving surgeries for knee injuries, heart problems and throat cancer.
During a procedure in June at New York-Presbyterian Hospital to remove a benign tumor from a patient's forearm, Penelope responded to voice commands from a surgeon, handing over clamps, forceps and other instruments with its magnetized mechanical arm.
"When you're in the operating room and you're trying to fight your way through a difficult trauma case, there could be a machine that's helping you mind the instruments and not lose things and keep track of stuff, kind of watching your tail for you," Treat said.
It is a vision closing in on reality.
Many hospitals use mobile robots to fill prescriptions, deliver meals and ferry blood samples to labs.
More than a dozen institutions use mobile robots that let doctors make virtual rounds, checking on patients from their offices and homes.
The physician, who controls the robot with a joystick and a special console, can see and hear the patient through a video camera and microphone.
In March the UCLA Medical Center began testing the robot in its neurosurgery intensive care unit, and the Detroit Medical Center deployed 10 of them in six hospitals.
Machines actively controlled by a surgeon function as tools to enhance human vision or movements for delicate procedures.
"She's not going to replace, she's going to enhance the job," said Doreen Taliaferro, an operating room nurse for 20 years who served as Penelope's backup during its first surgery.
While Penelope performed smoothly, Taliaferro was there to take over if anything went wrong and to handle items such as medications and sponges, which are beyond the robot's current abilities.
Treat has plans for robots that would act as surgical "first assistants," performing duties such as applying suction, exposing tissue with a retractor, and stitching up patients.
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