In robot-aided surgery, it doesn’t matter where you are, Chinese military study finds
First randomised controlled trial of telesurgery finds it a ‘feasible solution’ for uneven distribution of medical services
The researchers said telesurgery could be a “feasible” way to overcome the lack of medical services in parts of the country as well as the growing demand for operations to treat cancer.
“As the first randomised controlled trial in the field of telesurgery, this study establishes that its reliability is non-inferior to that of conventional local surgery,” the scientists wrote in an article published in the peer-reviewed medical journal The BMJ on Thursday.
“This finding provides a foundational evidence base for the design and implementation of larger-scale clinical trials in the future.”
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Telesurgery enables a surgeon to operate on a patient remotely, providing medical care to people in distant locations such as military environments, disaster zones, underserved regions and during space missions.
A surgeon controls the procedure from a console with haptic controls and 3D visualisation. Their movements are digitised and then transmitted via ultra-low-latency communication networks – such as dedicated optical fibre lines, 5G/6G wireless networks or satellite connections – to a robotic system on the patient’s side, which executes the actions.