As Oregon residents may have heard, robots have made their way into the medical field. Surgeons at a children’s medical center demonstrated that a robot could perform soft-tissue surgery.
During the surgery, the robot operated on bowel segments in pigs, suturing and reconnecting tissue. The robot is made up of an arm with surgical instruments, and it uses imagery and markers for navigating within the body. A surgeon associated with the project stated that the robot was able to do suturing by using pressure and its vision. However, although robots were accustomed to working with hard surfaces such as bone, operating on soft tissue presented a different type of challenge because it is not stationary the way bone is.
This is not the first robot of its type to be used in surgery. One system is used regularly and, reportedly, it is less invasive than traditional surgery when finding and reaching tumors. The associated surgeon said that he believes robotic surgeons may be used routinely if they are designed better, and that might free up a surgeon’s time to concentrate on other challenges. With over 45,000 surgeries on soft tissues annually in the country, the team believes that using robot technology may help eliminate surgical errors that are present in surgeries performed by humans.
A patient who has been injured due to medical error by a physician or surgical robot may face a poorer prognosis and increased hospital time and expenses. A medical malpractice attorney may examine hospital reports and physician records to determine fault and help by filing a malpractice lawsuit to recover damages.