The
field of surgery is entering a time of great change, spurred on by remarkable
recent advances in surgical and computer technology. Computer-controlled diagnostic
instruments have been used in the operating room for years to help provide vital
information through ultrasound, computer-aided tomography (CAT), and other imaging
technologies. Only recently have robotic systems made their way into the operating
room as dexterity-enhancing surgical assistants and surgical planners, in answer
to surgeons' demands for ways to overcome the surgical limitations of minimally
invasive laparoscopic surgery. The
Robotic surgical system enables surgeons to remove gallbladders and perform other
general surgical procedures while seated at a computer console and 3-D video imaging
system acrossthe room from the patient. The surgeons operate controls with their
hands and fingers to direct a robotically controlled laparoscope. At the end of
the laparoscope are advanced, articulating surgical instruments and miniature
cameras that allow surgeons to peer into the body and perform the procedures.Now
Imagine : An army ranger is riddled with shrapnel deep behind enemy lines.
Diagnostics
from wearable sensors signal a physician at a nearby mobile army surgical hospital
that his services are needed urgently. The ranger is loaded into an armored vehicle
outfitted with a robotic surgery system. Within minutes, he is undergoing surgery
performed by the physician, who is seated at a control console 100 kilometers
out of harm's way. The patient
is saved. This is the power that the amalgamation of technology and surgical sciences
are offering Doctors.Just as computers revolutionized the latter half of the 20th
century, the field of robotics has the potential to equally alter how we live
in the 21st century. We've already seen how robots have changed the manufacturing
of cars and other consumer goods by streamlining and speeding up the assembly
line.
