Doctors at McGill University Health Centre, Canada, have recently performed the world's first all-robotic surgery. The locally developed McSleepy put the patient on anesthesia, while surgeons used the well-known DaVinci robot to perform a prostatectomy. It was the first time these two robotic systems were combined.
From the press release:
“Providing anesthesia for robotic prostatectomy can be challenging because of the specific patient positioning and the high degree of muscle relaxation necessary to maintain perfect conditions for the surgical team,” added Dr. Hemmerling. “Automated anesthesia delivery via McSleepy guarantees the same high quality of care every time it is used, independent from the subjective level of expertise. It can be configured exactly to the specific needs of different surgeries, such as robotic surgery.”
“Obviously, there is still some work needed to perfect the all robotic approach - from technical aspects to space requirements for the robots,” added Dr. Hemmerling. “Whereas robots have been used in surgery for quite some time, anesthesia has finally caught up. Robots will not replace doctors but help them to perform to the highest standards.”
This first test was successful and now the team plans to expand their tests to more and larger types of surgery.
