Doctors At West Penn Are Using A Robot For Surgery

Interesting, but this is not really newsworthy. Surgeons have been using robots to perform a variety minimally invasive surgical procedures for years. Intuitive Surgical (http://www.intuitivesurgical.com/index.aspx), maker of the da Vinci surgical robot, is the only serious player in the market, having bought out (and mothballing) their competitor Computer Motion. (A German alternative was shutdown by a patient lawsuit.) The major impediment to widespread adoption is cost: $2-3M for the robot and instruments are $3k each (a chip embedded in each limits reuse to 10 procedures).

The leading edge in this field is the development of flexible integrated manipulators (camera and multiple instrument arms packaged as a single device 12-15 mm in diameter) that can enter through a single port (hole), as opposed the 3 to 4 ports used in current practice (1 for the camera and 2 to 3 for instruments: grapsers, scissors, staplers, etc.). Ultimately, surgeons hope to be able to perform many surgeries through natural orifices (mouth, anus, vagina), eliminating visible scars.

Robotic surgery is very exciting. Keep in mind that lots of the potential is in tele-operation - meaning robots will help get expert care to far out places.

Working with tissues is very hard though. That kind of dexterity is very advanced. A general purpose robot surgeon won't be out for at least a decade.