A robot helped doctors carry out the world’s first remote heart surgery.
From 20 miles away, the surgeon controlled a robotic arm to perform heart surgery on five patients in India.
Though the Robots are being used for doing Heart surgery for many years, it is the first time that they were
Although mortality rates from coronary artery disease (CAD) have stabilized over the past several decades in developed countries, the global burden of cardiovascular disease is steadily increasing in developing and underdeveloped countries . PCI with balloon angioplasty and stent placement is the standard treatment. However, the availability of hospitals with cardiac catheterization facilities and trained interventionalists is extremely limited in remote and underdeveloped areas. As a result, very few patients receive therapy. Thus, a real need exists to expand patient accessibility to revascularization procedures such as PCI. This need is underscored by the steadily decreasing number of trained interventional cardiologists.
Robot-assisted PCI (R-PCI) has been successfully utilized in the US since 2011, and its popularity continues to increase as technological improvements in robotic platforms are introduced and the advantages of R-PCI compared to manual PCI become better known.
Remote operations would benefit patients in less developed countries or rural areas who currently don’t have access to heart disease medical services.
Progress in 5G could enable further adoption of robotics-assisted remote surgery.
News Source: thelancet
