Robotic surgeons are getting more and more precise and a few days ago, Calgary doctors managed to remove a brain tumor from a 21 year old woman using a two-handed robot called NeuroArm. The operation took about nine-hours and it’s the first time that a robot made a surgery like this and hopefully, there will be more like this and successful, too.

In order to perform this surgery, the doctors used remote controls and imaging screen, and in the end the egg-shaped brain tumor of Paige Nickason was removed. After this operation, the University of Calgary received many requests for surgeries like this.

The advantage of NeuroArm is that it can move in smaller increments than a human. One or two milimetres for a surgeon respectively, 50 microns for the robot.

“Paige’s brain surgery represents a technical achievement in the use of image-guided robotic technology to remove a relatively complex brain tumour,” said Dr. Garnette Sutherland, professor of neurosurgery at the University of Calgary faculty of medicine and NeuroArm team leader.

Dr. Sutherland says that the technology can be improved because for the moment, the robots don’t have the dexterity of a human, but “it’s evolving and it will continue to evolve”.

Source