Roaming robots set to revolutionise surgical operations from inside

SURGEONS could soon be assisted by tiny roaming robots designed to look at operations from the inside.

A prototype device has been developed by US scientists and tested on pigs.

Up to three robots were employed to help remove gall bladders from dead animals. They were also used to explore the abdominal cavity of a live pig.

The radio-controlled device, which measures only 15 millimetres in diameter, can move around inside the stomach or abdomen, sending back images of the operation area. It is equipped with a retractable needle, allowing it to extract tissue samples for biopsies.

The robot consists of two rotating aluminium cylinders connected by a thick axle, which carries the camera. A spiral pattern on the surface of the cylinders allows it to grip the walls of the abdominal cavity and move around.

“They have been designed not to slip or damage tissue,” inventor Dmitry Oleynikov, from the University of Nebraska Medical Centre in Omaha, told New Scientist magazine.

A joystick operated from a console controls the robot’s movements.

The robots can be inserted into incisions already made for cutting and grasping tools, unlike endoscopic cameras which need a separate point of entry.

As a result, when Oleynikov removed the pigs’ gall bladders, he only needed to make two incisions rather than the usual four.

The robots tested on the live pig were inserted through the animal’s mouth and an incision in the stomach wall. This is a procedure known as natural orifice surgery.

A surgeon removing a gall bladder or performing a liver biopsy, for example, may insert his instruments via the mouth and then pass them through small incisions in the stomach lining. This avoids the necessity of making an external wound. The result is less trauma to the abdominal wall, and no scarring.

Endoscopic cameras are not very effective for natural orifice operations as their freedom of movement is limited.

However, some experts question the need for such techniques.

Ara Darzi, a pioneer of minimally invasive surgery at Imperial College London, told New Scientist: “Logic defies why you have to take such a complicated route to get to the abdomen.”