A team of researchers has succeeded in developing an autonomous surgical system. For the first time, a robot has managed to perform an intestinal anastomosis by laparoscopy without being guided by a human.
The surgical robots are not completely new, and many models already allow to improve the precision of gestures or to perform a remote operation. However, until now these devices have always been guided by humans. Researchers from thejohns hopkins university in the United States wanted to make operations fully automated and developed a robot capable of carrying out a anastomosis bowel without human assistance.
In an article published in the journal Science Roboticsthe researchers detail the improvements made to the robot dubbed Star (Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot). He had already succeeded surgery in 2016, but with a large incision that required human intervention. The new model succeeded in joining two parts of the intestine in one operation by laparoscopy.
Results “significantly better” than those of a human surgeon
the robot was equipped with specialized suturing tools as well as a endoscopy 3D monochrome. They used machine learning to create a three-dimensional representation of the tissues to be manipulated. The surgery was successfully carried out on pigs without any human assistance.
” Star performed the procedure on four animals and achieved significantly better results than humans performing the same procedure “Said Axel Krieger, one of the authors. According to the researchers, such robots surgeons will be able to democratize access to specialized operations, while offering more uniform results and a better outcome for patients.
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