Would you ever believe that surgeons will be able to operate on a patient even though they are 400 km away? That is exactly what telesurgery can allow. It is an innovative surgical tool that connects patients and surgeons who are geographically distant. The surgeon observes the surgical area on the screen and uses a haptic arm to move the robotic arm during the operation.
On the one hand, there are many benefits of telesurgery in comparison to conventional surgical methods. First and foremost, telesurgery is an excellent solution for those who for some reason can not travel to get medical care. Not only financial constraints but also travel-related health issues can pose a problem for some people. Secondly, it enables surgery through smaller incisions and its robotic arms are able to reach hard-to-access areas in the body. It also eliminates a surgeon’s possible tremor resulting in improved surgical accuracy. Consequently, the risk of damaging surrounding structures, the risk of blood loss, and the risk of infection are alleviated. Aside from this, telesurgery gives surgeons from different centres an opportunity to collaborate and operate on a patient simultaneously.
On the other hand, there are some issues in the field of telerobotic surgery. Firstly, a time lag is considered to be a major drawback while using telesurgery. It was determined that a time delay of more than 2 seconds can be a threat. Secondly, being operated on by a surgeon, a patient has never met face-to-face, can cause distrust and anxiety. And finally, a researcher at Obuda University in Budapest who studies space telesurgery, Tamas Haidegger, noted that despite having a master surgical plan, things can go wrong. For example, blood circulation can collapse, or there is an unforeseen reaction to certain drugs. That is why there is still a necessity to have a trained surgeon on-site. Nonetheless, he believes that soon robots will be augmented with artificial intelligence and will be able to go into autopilot mode. It would be a significant breakthrough in human history!
Having considered all possible pros and cons of telesurgery, in my opinion, the technology is worth being widely embedded. I would agree that it can scare some people that a robot is performing an operation. However, in reality, surgeons are in full control of the machine at all times and the robot’s movements are far more precise.
https://www.cureus.com/articles/54068-telesurgery-and-robotics-an-improved-and-efficient-era
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140516-i-operate-on-people-400km-away
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/22178-robotic-surgery
To be honest, I’m not much surprised to hear about this, it was bound to happen sooner or later. What I do wonder though is even if there would be an on-site doctor, what would he do if the robot suddenly broke down? If well-programmed, that shouldn’t be a frequent occurrence, yet there still is a high possibility of that happening and a single situation of this sort could lead to very serious issues and lawsuits.
The medical equipment required for this kind of operation will be terribly expensive and stored in one specified room in hospital, while performing even simple surgery there, is other medical stuff helping in preparation for surgery and cleaning medical equipment. For me, the only possibility for usage of such a machine would be hiring one surgeon in few remote locations, but it will be cheaper to just buy him a fly ticket.
I agree with the assessment of the benefits and drawbacks of telesurgery offered in this blog. It is evident that telesurgery has the potential to totally transform how we do surgery, particularly in terms of providing care to patients who previously could not travel or resided in remote places. The approach has the potential to greatly reduce the risk of complications and improve surgical outcomes, and it has the added benefit of allowing surgeons to access regions of the body that are difficult to reach and make smaller incisions. While there are certain concerns that must be addressed, such as the time lag and the likelihood of patient anxiety, I believe that these issues may be remedied with greater technological innovation and improvement.