Information and Communication Technology Trends in Telesurgery

Fabio Villa* and Agostino Pozzi

In 2001 a woman underwent a cholecystectomy in Strasbourg, France. What was new? The surgical team who performed the operation was 14,000 km away, in New York [1]. It was the first case of remote robotic surgery. The operation had no complications and the patient had a decent postoperative follow-up. This epoch-making event was dedicated to Charles Lindbergh, the pioneering American aviator who flew across the Atlantic in 1927.

Normally, the surgeon operates with the robot assistance at 2-3 meters from the operatory table and the device, developed for military purpose, reproduces the surgeon’s gestures into surgical instruments motion.

The battle field has always been a privileged space to boost technical improvements, from the antibiotics to the GPS, particularly in the medical sector. Given the background, it has been assessed that in combative situations 9 severely injured soldiers out of 10 die before reaching a medical facility, the main cause being hemorrhage that could be arrested by a prompt intervention [2]. The will to save them, and protect the other personnel as well, has led to the introduction of the concept of remote surgery, also known as telesurgery.

Keywords:

Published on: May 25, 2016 Pages: 25-29

Full Text PDF Full Text HTML DOI: 10.17352/2455-2968.000026
CrossMark Publons Harvard Library HOLLIS Search IT Semantic Scholar Get Citation Base Search Scilit OAI-PMH ResearchGate Academic Microsoft GrowKudos Universite de Paris UW Libraries SJSU King Library SJSU King Library NUS Library McGill DET KGL BIBLiOTEK JCU Discovery Universidad De Lima WorldCat VU on WorldCat