World’s First Fully Robotic Surgery Performed In Montreal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The surgery marks the first time that a robot surgeon and a robot anesthesiologist have collaborated to operate on a human.

Specialists from McGill University used a surgical robot they named “DaVinci”, which lets surgeons work from remote locations and an anesthesia robot nicknamed “McSleepy”, itself the world’s first robot for putting people to sleep for surgery. The two robots collaborated for the first time ever in a groundbreaking surgery, performed at Montreal General Hospital. The doctors said the exercise was inevitable, since medical robots have proven themselves to be more precise and safer than human surgeons.

“Collaboration between DaVinci and McSleepy, seemed an obvious fit; robots in medicine can provide health care of higher safety and precision, thus ultimately improving outcomes,” said Dr. TM Hemmerling of McGill University and MUHC’s Department of Anesthesia, who is also a neuroscience researcher at the Research Institute (RI) of the MUHC

DaVinci allowed surgeons to work from a remote workstation operating surgical instruments with delicate movements of their fingers with extremely accurate precision. McSleepy helped to create the perfect conditions needed for robotic surgery by helping with the appropriate positioning, level of muscle relaxation and monitoring of the patient’s breathing rate, vital signs, heart rate and oxygen saturation.

The success of this surgery makes it likely that DaVinci and McSleepy will team up again. The researchers plan to test robotic surgery and robotic anesthesia across a variety of surgeries and patients.

Read the McGill University news article and more about robotic surgery and automated anesthesia delivery.

Biosynthetic cornea stimulates regeneration in damaged eye tissue

A recent study from researchers in Canada and Sweden has shown that biosynthetic corneas can help regenerate and repair damaged eye tissue and improve vision in humans.

This study is important because it’s the first to show that an artificially fabricated cornea can integrate with the human eye and stimulate regeneration,” said senior author Dr. May Griffith of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, the University of Ottawa and Linköping University. “With further research, this approach could help restore sight to millions of people who are waiting for a donated human cornea for transplantation.”