The use of robots in the operating room is nothing new. There have been quite a number of cases where doctors have used certain robotics to assist their operations on patients.
But what if one day these robotic surgeons could perform operations on people without the need for help or guidance from a doctor?
Well this is something that researchers at Johns Hopkins University in the United States are currently investigating. They have developed a system known as STAR or Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot.
In one of their tests, the robot was able to perform complex surgical procedures on pigs without requiring human assistance to guide it, and it even seemed to do a better job than humans.
The operation in question is a small bowel anastomosis, where for example the end of the intestine is reattached if it is removed to treat a tumor, as reported by us from Ubergizmo.
The difficult part of this operation is that a small mistake can cause certain leaks and because it is a soft tissue, it can also move a little.
By using the STAR system on four pig subjects, it was seen that robotic sewing and stitching was more accurate and consistent than if done by humans and no leaks were detected.
It may be a while before we actually see the STAR system used in humans, but it sounds promising and it could be an exciting future in medicine that we may look forward to someday.