🔗 Share this article

Doctors from Scotland and the United States have accomplished what is considered a pioneering brain operation employing a robot.

Prof Iris Grunwald, working at a Scottish university, conducted the remote thrombectomy - the extraction of vascular blockages after a cerebral event - on a donated body that had been contributed to medicine.

The surgeon was located at a major hospital in the Scottish city, while the subject undergoing procedure via the device was at another location at the academic institution.

Later that day, Ricardo Hanel from the American state employed the equipment to carry out the initial intercontinental procedure from his Florida location on a medical specimen in Scotland over significant distance away.

The team has called it a potential "transformative advancement" if it receives authorization for use on patients.

The doctors think this system could revolutionize cerebral healthcare, as a delay in accessing specialist treatment can have a major influence on the chances of recovery.

"It felt as if we were witnessing the initial vision of the future," said Prof Grunwald.

"Whereas before this was thought to be science fiction, we proved that each phase of the procedure can already be done."

The University of Dundee is the global training center of the international stroke organization, and is the sole location in the United Kingdom where doctors can operate on medical specimens with human blood pumped through the blood pathways to replicate operations on a live human.

"This represented the pioneering moment that we could conduct the entire surgical process in a genuine medical subject to show that every phase of the surgery are feasible," said the lead expert.

A charity executive, the chief executive of a health foundation, described the long-distance operation as "an extraordinary advancement".

"For too long, individuals from remote and rural areas have been limited in obtaining to thrombectomy," she stated.

"This type of automation could address the disparity which exists in medical intervention nationwide."

How does the system function?

An blockage stroke happens when an blood vessel is obstructed by a clot.

This disrupts vascular flow to the brain, and neurons lose function and die.

The best treatment is a clot removal, where a expert uses surgical tools to clear the obstruction.

But what transpires when a person cannot access a specialist who can perform the surgery?

The lead researcher explained the trial showed a robot could be attached to the equivalent surgical tools a specialist would conventionally utilize, and a medical staff who is with the patient could easily connect the wires.

The expert, in a separate site, could then hold and move their personal instruments, and the robot then carries out exactly the same movements in real time on the individual to perform the clot removal.

The individual would be in a hospital operating room, while the surgeon could conduct the operation via the advanced machine from any place - even their personal residence.

The lead researcher and Ricardo Hanel could observe immediate scans of the subject in the experiments, and track developments in live conditions, with the Dundee expert explaining it took just a brief period of instruction.

Major corporations leading tech firms were contributed to the research to guarantee the connectivity of the automated system.

"To operate from the United States to the Scottish nation with a 120 millisecond lag - an instant - is absolutely amazing," stated the medical expert.

Innovations in cerebral healthcare

Prof Grunwald, who has received recognition for her research and is also the executive member of the global healthcare association, said there were two main problems with a traditional procedure - a international lack of surgeons who can conduct it, and care is determined by your geographical position.

In the region, there are only three places people can obtain the treatment - Dundee, Glasgow and Edinburgh. If you don't live there, you must journey.

"The intervention is highly dependent on timing," stated the lead researcher.

"Every six minutes delay, you have a one percent reduced probability of having a good outcome.

"This system would now deliver a new way where you're not depending on where you live - conserving the valuable minutes where your brain is deteriorating."

Public health data indicated there were {9,625 ischaemic strokes|numerous cerebral events|