A pair of humanoid robots crossed a major medical milestone this week after successfully performing gallbladder removals in pigs for the first time, a breakthrough that researchers say could one day reshape surgery far beyond traditional operating rooms.
The pioneering procedures were carried out by engineers and surgeons at the University of California San Diego, with the findings published July 8 in the journal Nature.
The first operation was performed by a humanoid robot with assistance from a surgeon.
In the second, two humanoid robots completed the surgery together, according to the university. Researchers say the successful pig surgeries mark an important step before the technology advances to human trials.
“As a proof of concept, it absolutely worked,” Dr. Ryan Broderick, interim director of the Center for the Future of Surgery at UC San Diego, told ABC.
Unlike many robotic surgical systems already used in hospitals, the humanoid machines feature a head and arms and take up far less space in the operating room.
The research team has even given the robots the nickname “Surgie.”
“The space constraints didn’t exist like in traditional robotic surgery,” Broderick said. “It was a human-type bedside assistant, so it just fit into the space that we’re traditionally used to being in for laparoscopic surgery.”
Researchers believe the compact design could eventually allow the robots to operate in places where conventional surgical systems are impractical.
“You can imagine this device being deployed on a ship, in a village somewhere, in a smaller operating environment that’s not in major cities,” Dr. Shanglei Liu, a colorectal surgeon at UC San Diego told ABC.
“And it opens up, I think, a lot of doors for access.”
The team also sees the technology as a possible answer to staffing shortages in hospitals by helping medical teams perform more operations in the future.
“I believe we’ve shown that it is possible to use humanoid robots in an operating room to do real procedures that can eventually save lives,” Michael Yip, a UC San Diego professor told ABC.
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