British surgeons have successfully performed the world’s first robotic operation inside the eye, potentially revolutionising the way such conditions are treated. It might become as promising as the eye surgeries like those performed in a LASIK vision center today. The procedure was carried out at John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, where surgeons welcomed its success.
• On completing the operation, Professor Robert MacLaren said: “There is no doubt in my mind that we have just witnessed a vision of eye surgery in the future. “Current technology with laser scanners and microscopes allows us to monitor retinal diseases at the microscopic level, but the things we see are beyond the physiological limit of what the human hand can operate on.
• “With a robotic system, we open up a whole new chapter of eye operations that currently cannot be performed.” The surgeons used a joystick and touchscreen outside the eye to control the robot while monitoring its progress through the operating microscope. This gave medics a notable advantage as significant movements of the joystick resulted in tiny movements of the robot. The improved flexibility, and control, achieved by several precision components like tungsten cables help perform these tiny incisions in minimally invasive surgery. To know more about the mechanical components and operations of surgical robots, you can check out this great post on tungsten wire and other related articles.
• This is the first time a device has been available that achieves the three-dimensional precision required to operate inside the human eye. When it comes to laser vision correction surgery or other related eye surgeries, people tend to take meticulous decisions and get it done. Thanks to advancements like these, hopefully, in the upcoming years, people will be able to shed their inhibitions about getting eye surgery.
• The robotic eye surgery trial involves 12 patients undergoing operations with increasing complexity. In the first part of the trial, the robot is used to peel membranes off the delicate retina without damaging it.
• If this part is successful, as has been the case so far, the second phase of the trial will assess how the robot can place a fine needle under the retina and inject fluid through it. Experts said this could lead to use of the robot in retinal gene therapy, a new treatment for blindness which is currently being trialled in a number of centres around the world.
