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The Advance of Robotic Surgery

Uploaded by 2ndgrader on Dec 26, 2004

Robotic Surgery

Just as computers revolutionized the later half of the twentieth century, the field of robotics has the promise to equally alter the way we live in the twenty first century. We have already seen how robots have modified the manufacturing of cars and other customer goods by streamlining and speeding up the assembly lines. Robots have also enabled us to see places that humans are not yet able to visit, such as other planets and depths of the ocean never before explored. And just as computer controlled diagnostic instruments have been used in medicine for years to provide vital information through ultrasound, computer-aided topography, and other imaging technologies, robotic technology is making it's way to operating rooms all over the globe. When we speak robots doing the tasks of humans we often talk about the future, but the future of robotic surgery is already here.

On July 11, 2000, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first robotic system for use in American operating rooms (Schaaf par.2). This system is not true independent robot that can perform surgical procedures on it's own, but it lends a mechanical helping hand to the surgeon during delicate procedures. This System, named the da Vinci Surgical System, allows the human surgeon to get closer to the surgical site than human vision will permit and work at a smaller scale than conventional surgery permits.

While sitting at the console, a few feet from the operating table, the surgeon looks into a viewfinder to examine the 3-D images being sent by a camera inside the patient. The images show the surgical site and the two surgical instruments mounted on the ends of two robotic arms. Joystick like controls, located at the console beneath the screen, are used by the surgeon to manipulate the surgical instruments, which moves in sync with the movements of the surgeon's hands. This technology translates the surgeon's movements into precise real-time movements of the surgical instruments inside the patient without hand tremors. The pencil sized instruments feature computer-enhanced mechanical wrists that are designed to have the same dexterity as the surgeon's forearm and wrists ant the operative site. These mechanical wrists give the surgeon the ability to reach around, beyond, and behind delicate body structures. The wrists can roll, pitch, bend, and grip just as if it were a...

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Uploaded by:   2ndgrader

Date:   12/26/2004

Category:   Technology

Length:   4 pages (824 words)

Views:   9014

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