Surgery and Surgical Robotics

Science fiction that features wires connecting brains to computers might now be obsolete. Wireless powered implants, each smaller than a grain of rice, could serve as “neural dust” that can one day scan and stimulate brain cells. Such research could one day help lead to next-generation brain-machine interfaces for controlling prosthetics, exoskeletons and robots, as…

 Dr. Catherine Mohr, senior director of medical research at Intuitive Surgical.  Intuitive Surgical is the maker of the Da Vinci Surgical System, a robot used in prostate removal and other surgical procedures. There, Dr. Mohr develops new surgical procedures and evaluates new technologies for improving surgical outcomes. She submitted this piece in response to a post by Forbes contributor…

The FDA has approved the CyPass Micro-Stent, a device for treatment of mild to moderate primary open-angle glaucoma that is intended to be implanted along with cataract surgery. The device will be marketed by Alcon, a division of Novartis. Alcon acquired Transcend Medical, the original developer of this technology, in February 2016. The stent creates a channel for…

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– TransEnterix, Inc. (NYSE MKT: TRXC), a medical device company that is pioneering the use of robotics to improve minimally invasive surgery, today announced the first global sale of its ALF-XⓇ Surgical Robotic System to Humanitas Hospital in Milan, Italy. “We are pleased to announce the first global sale of our…

Letting a snake-like robot glide into your mouth and down your throat may sound a bit alarming. Letting such a robot glide into any of your other orifices may sound more alarming still. But the Flex Robotic System from Medrobotics, in Raynham, Mass., has earned high praise from a head and neck surgeon who has…

The day when surgeons can stop having to repeatedly cut open the skull to deliver life-saving laser therapy to the brain moves closer with the development of a new material for making transparent skull implants. Researchers at the University of California – Riverside (UCR) report their progress with the new implant material in two recently…

Scientists from MIPT and their colleagues have developed a compact and powerful ceramic-based laser with applications in minimally traumatic and inexpensive laser surgical scalpels, and also for cutting and engraving composite materials. The results of the study have been published in Optics Letters. Today, lasers are in consumer electronics devices, medicine, metallurgy, metrology, meteorology, and…

While robots have been in use since the 1960s, it is only 25 years since robotic technologies were first used to assist surgeons in improving surgical outcomes, providing such benefits as less trauma on the body, minimal scarring, and faster patient recovery times. Among the first robots to be deployed were ROBODOC and Acrobot, developed…