Robotic Telesurgery from 3,800 Miles Away

A high-speed fiber optic service recently enabled surgeons in New York (NY, USA) to remove the gallbladder of a patient in a hospital in Strasbourg (France) by sending signals to a robotic surgical system in the hospital. The procedure was reported in the September 27, 2001, issue of Nature.

The patient was released from the hospital two days after the surgery and returned to normal activity the following week. Dr. Jacques Marescaux, of the European Institute of Telesurgery and one of the operating surgeons in New York, attributes the fast recovery to the less-traumatic, minimally invasive approach used. In order for the surgery to work, the constant time delay between the surgeon's movements and the return video image displayed on the screen had to be less than 200 milliseconds. France Telecom's high-speed service achieved an average time delay of 150 milliseconds. This opens the way for patients to have access to expert surgeons anywhere in the world without having to travel.

The surgeons used the Zeus Robotic Surgical System of Computer Motion Inc. (Goleta, CA, USA; www.computermotion.com) to perform the procedure. The system has received the CE Mark for use in Europe.

"I felt as comfortable operating on my patient as if I had been in the room,” said Dr. Marescaux. "But the knowledge of the level of medical science and technology that enabled the surgery are a landmark for all medical treatment and training to come.”




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