How it Works: Surgical Snakebot
- Surgery has always been synonymous with incisions. But the new snake-inspired Flex System from Medrobotics could reduce bloodshed and hasten healing by traveling through a convenient (if unsettling) alternative: a natural orifice, such as the mouth.
- During a Flex procedure, the surgeon stands or sits within arm's reach of the patient and a video console, and alternates between steering the robot with a joystick and manually operating the instruments threaded through its tip. Since the bot curves and pivots to maneuver around tissue and organs, Medrobotics claims it's more versatile than laparoscopy, which often requires multiple punctures to insert a camera and tools.
- The company is now submitting Flex for approval in the United States and Europe for head and neck procedures, such as the removal of throat tumors. But the snakebot's ultimate destination is the abdomen, via a small incision---or a private orifice. It's an approach that, while distressing to imagine, could revolutionize surgery.
- http://www.popsci.com/article/technology/how-it-works-surgical-snakebot?dom=PSC&loc=recent&lnk=6&con=how-it-works-surgical-snakebot
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