Eye Roboticist

With the help of a robot surgeon, the first ever operation was performed on human eyes

DailyTechInfo based on World Record Academy: World's first robotic eye surgery: John Radcliffe Hospital sets world record

Surgeons from John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK, remotely performed surgery on human eyes by lifting a membrane with the help of a specialized robot, the thickness of which is a hundredth of a millimeter and which covers the retina of the eye. This operation, according to information from the World Record Academy, is the first ever automated operation in the field of eye surgery.

To perform the operation, surgeons used a Robotic Retinal Dissection Device (R2D2), which is designed for remote retinal surgery. But the most important feature of this device is that it is able to smooth out and completely suppress the trembling of the surgeon's hands, even those caused by the pulse of his heartbeat.

The R2D2 robot was designed and manufactured by the Dutch robotics company Preceyes BV. This robot has seven independent high-precision electric drives with computer control, which drive a mechanical manipulator arm. Using a joystick, a touch screen and an operating microscope, the surgeon can control the movements of the robot with positioning accuracy in thousandths of a millimeter.

The operation with the help of the robot R2D2 was carried out by Professor of ophthalmology Robert Maclaren (Robert MacLaren). Under his control, the robot penetrated into the patient's eye through a hole less than a millimeter in diameter. The patient was a 70-year-old priest William Beaver, whose membrane began to grow on top of the retina, causing distortions in vision. This membrane, a hundredth of a millimeter thick, had to be separated from the retina without damaging the latter at the same time. The operation was completely successful and Beaver's father's eyesight is starting to return to normal.

And in conclusion, it should be noted that this operation was sponsored by the University of Oxford and the Oxford Biomedical Research Center NIHR with the support of several other organizations from the UK and the Netherlands.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  11.10.2016