Robotic Technology
One of the greatest advances in health care technology of the 21st century is robotic surgery. Robots are used in high-tech surgery procedures across the country. For example, the Mayo Clinic performs abdominal, cardiovascular, gynecological, urological, and head and neck surgeries.
These surgeries are not performed entirely by robots, instead they are “directed” by real surgeons during delicate surgery. A surgeon, using small finger motions, is able to control extremely small movements of the robotic hands that are holding surgical instruments. As the surgeon watches a computer screen, which digitally enhances a three-dimensional view of the surgery site, that surgeon is able to perform very sensitive surgeries without worrying about whether or not the hands will shake too much.
A 2006 study at Imperial College London proved that robot assisted surgery, in the case of knee surgeries, greatly improved the accuracy of the procedure, and the post-surgery recovery.In the surgery, 14 patients were provided knee conventional knee surgery, where no robot was used. However the remaining 13 patients were provided with robot assisted knee surgery. The knee surgery, in these cases, involved partial knee replacement, where surgeons must accurately line up replacement knee parts with existing bones in order for the knee to work properly.
The benefits of robot-assisted surgery were significant. Not only were there not side effects, post-surgery recovery was actually faster in most cases.Professor Justin Cobb, who headed up the research, commented that the robots only assisted the surgeon’s skills within surgery; it did “not take over the operation.” This distinction is important because when many people think of robotic surgery, they picture a robot performing the surgery.
The reality of this amazing health care technology is that these robots take the surgeon’s existing surgical skills and knowledge, and enhance them by removing human error. The minute shaking of the surgeon’s hands, the slight inaccuracy in vision, or other human imperfections are replaced with the tightly defined, rigid, and strict accuracy of a machine run by a computer. However, despite the fact that the robot has removed the human imperfections in the process, the wisdom, instinct, and natural split-second decision making ability of the surgeon remains.