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Human-made robots have removed spleens from live animals in unprecedented trials, but not as autonomous machines that can replace human doctors. Instead, skilled human surgeons remotely controlled the robots’ movements in a new model of human-robot teams.
The teleoperated humanoid robots completed two minimally invasive gallbladder removal surgeries in living pigs during a preclinical trial published in the journal Nature. If the method eventually proves to be patient-ready, surgeons could use such robots to perform robotic-assisted surgery in smaller hospitals and clinics that don’t have the equipment to install specialized but expensive robots.
“It’s a fraction of the cost and takes up a fraction of the operating room,” he said Shanglei Liuassistant professor of surgery at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, in conversation with UC San Diego Today. “So it’s easy to deploy, anywhere from the countryside, to the battlefield, even to space.”
