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Technology Assisted Surgery

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Beginning from trephination which according to historians was the oldest operation performed even in prehistoric times to minimally invasive operations with use of technology that have now become the norm in modern era, the field of surgery has evolved by leaps and bounds. Various aspects of technology assisted surgery have been dealt with in this paper along with the different types of technologies in use like computer assisted and robotic surgeries. Traditional and modern methods have been compared and their pros and cons have been discussed in detail along with the application of technology in various surgical branches.
Keywords: surgery, technology, robotics.

Introduction
It has been well said: necessity is the mother of invention. …show more content…

James McEwen, Geof Auchinleck and Dr. Brian Day were the pioneers in the field of technology assisted surgery; they developed a robot named Arthrobot which was first used in an orthopedic procedure in 1983. At the same time efforts were also made to design a surgical scrub nurse robot and a robotic arm. In 1985 robots went one step further and helped perform a brain biopsy under CT guidance, the robot that performed the procedure was named Unimation Puma 200 (Berlinger, 2006).
In 1989 Computer Motion was set up and started working towards revolutionizing surgical procedures. The credit for the first pure robotic surgery in the world goes to PROBOT which was developed at Imperial College London and was used in prostatic surgery in the year 1992. In the same year ROBODOC developed by Integrated Surgical Systems was used in hip replacements. Computer Motion developed AesopTM which was considered to be the third hand of the operating surgeon and could hold an endoscopic camera. This was mainly utilized in minimal laparoscopic surgery and was controlled by foot pedals. New users found it hard to master the pedals. However, in 1993 Aesop 1000 was granted FDA approval becoming the first surgical visual aid device to be granted such recognition. In 1996 an improved version which could be controlled by voice command was developed and named Aesop 2000 .Improved dexterity of arm was the main feature of AESOP 3000 which was developed in 1998. Aesop HR has the ability …show more content…

The da Vinci Surgical System developed by Intuitive Surgical was actually developed to help perform surgical procedures in adverse environmental conditions or remote places or zones of conflict where the safety of a surgical team could be compromised. But, as the system was used in practical situations it became evident that it would be best to use it in minimally invasive surgical procedures. The da Vinci converts the movements of a surgeon into electronic signals which are then relayed to instruments which are then able to perform surgical steps without the effect of tremors if any in the surgeon’s movements. It is also incorporated with a camera which relays a stereoscopic picture to the monitor through which the surgeon can see the events in real time. This system was approved by FDA in 2001. The various surgical procedures that the da Vinci has performed include heart bypass operations, renal transplant procedure, gall bladder operations and laparoscopic surgeries. The Endowrist was also developed by the same company and it resulted in a design which was similar to a human hand and could perform all the movements in all ranges like the surgeon’s hand but it was more flexible, accurate and provided better manipulation of instruments as compared to a human

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