Surgical Robotic Instruments
Surgical robotics is the use of machines and robots to assist and perform surgical procedures using minimally invasive surgery, or MIS. There are several ways that robotic instruments are used in today's medical field. Some help in teleoperation, surgical assessment, biomechanics and even surgical simulation. The first surgical robotic instrument was introduced in 1983 and was used in Canada. Today, there are several robotic instruments that make surgery a safer and more precise science.
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The Da Vinci Surgical System
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The Da Vinci Surgical System is the first surgical robotic instrument that gained the approval of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is one of the most common and popular robotic instruments in hospitals today. It has four robotic arms; one arm controls the camera and the other three hold instruments that can be interchangeable, depending on the type of operation being performed. While using this device during an operation, the main surgeon sits beside the operating table and uses a set of joysticks to control the robotic arms.
Advantage of Surgical Robotic Instruments
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The best advantage that surgical robotic instruments offer is the ability to operate on a person with minimal incisions. Traditional open surgery involves a large cut on patients in order for the surgeons to see the whole area of the operation, but surgical robotics can bypass this process since the cameras can navigate inside a body with just a few minimal incisions.
Aside from minimally invasive surgery, surgical robotic instruments can also be more precise in cutting and operating, since their operating system is based on mathematical calculations. Patients can also recover more easily when they are operated on with the help of surgical robotic instruments, since invasive instruments had minimal activity inside their bodies.
Surgical robotic instruments are also used in diagnostics procedures. For example, if a patient shows signs of certain problems in an internal organ, surgical robotic instruments are used to check if the internal organ is indeed having some physical manifestations of a complication. This can be done easily without subjecting the patient to an open surgery right away.
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Common Procedures that use Surgical Robotic Instruments
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Prostatectomy and hysterectomy are two of the most common surgical procedures performed with the help of surgical robotic instruments. Prostatectomy, which is used to treat prostate cancer, removes the prostate gland and other seminal vesicles that might have cancerous cells. Hysterectomy is the surgical removal of the uterus for any of several uterine conditions, including tumors. Other surgical procedures that robotic instruments assist include kidney removal, bladder removal and removal of blockages to the kidneys.
Teleoperation
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Teleoperation is a more complex procedure that uses surgical robotic instruments, but this procedure is one of the most cutting-edge technologies that medical practitioners have developed. In teleoperation, a surgeon can use surgical robotic instruments and advanced telecommunication to operate on a patient hundreds of miles away. The surgeon uses a control panel that directly operates the robotic instrument, even if the two pieces of equipment are far from each other. This is a very great advantage to patients and surgeons, as they do not need to travel hundreds of miles just to perform an operation.
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References
- Photo Credit surgery image by Andrey Rakhmatullin from Fotolia.com
