Futuristic Robots Are the Surgeons of Today
By Christian Olsen
A few years ago, Ron Tourdot received an unusual offer.
As a truck mechanic, Ron’s work is physically demanding. He is constantly changing truck tires and lifting heavy engine parts.
And when he discovered that he needed a coronary-bypass surgery, you can imagine his dismay.
For this surgery, the sternum – the long flat bone in the middle of your chest – needs to be literally broken open. Then a doctor needs to operate on the heart.
Ron worried how soon he would be able to return to work. He didn’t have the luxury of unlimited vacation. Open heart surgery takes months to recover from. Some patients take years to fully use their arms and shoulders again. They must restrict themselves from doing any labor-intensive work. And that’s not to mention the possible health complications.
Not only would Ron be out of commission… he’d also be out of work.
But this is the 21st century. Open heart surgery isn’t the only option anymore.
When Ron visited the hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, cardio surgeon Dr. Lucian Lozonschi offered him the best alternative… robotic-assisted beating-heart surgery.
Robotic surgery is much more precise. Doctors don’t need to split open the sternum. Instead, they make holes the size of pencils along the ribcage that allow the surgeon to insert instruments and cables with cameras into the chest.
It seems intuitive: If a doctor doesn’t have to open you up, it’s far less stressful on your body.
Through a monitor, the surgeon can see a high-definition 3D image and is able to use the instruments with incredible dexterity and precision.
Incredibly, these instruments can move like your wrist. Doctors can move the instruments at angles and into tiny places. That sort of thing would be impossible for a surgeon using a scalpel.
With the cameras magnifying the view, the surgeon’s hands out of the way, and the robotic surgeon’s smaller, more flexible instruments, doctors have much greater control, dexterity, and precision over the patient’s organs.
The team at the University of Wisconsin hospital operated on Ron on a Thursday. He was walking the next day. And he went home on Sunday, just three days after heart surgery. He was back at work less than two weeks after the procedure.
He was lifting truck parts and changing tires just like he was two weeks earlier.
Stories like Ron’s are incredible. And they show how far technology is advancing health care.
Technology has given us robots that are able to make excellent surgeons even better. The surgical robot is the next giant leap in medicine. It allows surgeons to have better dexterity in smaller spaces with smaller incisions.
Dr. Yuman Fong – chair and professor of the Department of Surgery, director of the Center for International Medicine, and surgeon – had this to say last year…
We are now at a pivotal point in the field when a technology is about to transform from a tool for innovators and experts to a tool for general practitioners.
Robotic surgery is here.
Over the past 14 years, more than 1.8 million robotic procedures have taken place in the U.S. Surgeons now use robotics for surgical specialties like prostate cancer, heart problems, colon cancer, and many more.
This trend is just getting started. About 51 million inpatient surgeries happen each year in the U.S. Almost all are open surgical procedures – meaning that the surgery is done through large openings in the skin, muscle, and bone.
Compared to open surgery, robotic surgery has many advantages for both surgeon and patient…
It seems intuitive: If a doctor doesn’t have to open you up, it’s far less stressful on your body.
Consider heart surgery like Ron had, for example. Doctors don’t have to crack open your sternum. In contrast, robotic surgery makes smaller incisions through your ribcage, placing far less stress on your body and reducing the risk of infection (more on that in a minute).
Ron was back at work within a week of his operation. Recovery time matters.
Open heart surgery leaves patients with massive scars that resemble a zipper. But you can hardly see the three tiny scars left on Ron’s chest and ribcage. That may sound cosmetic, but it’s a huge benefit for recovery.
Open surgery also means reduced access to the surgical area. Putting a doctor’s hands or long instruments into tiny spaces inside the human body limits what they can do. And it certainly limits what doctors can see.
With robotic surgery, the cameras, surgical tools, and software combine to produce the best possible scenario for the surgeon. He can perform better than if he cuts the patient open. The surgeon can “feel with his eyes” because of the high-definition 3-D cameras that show him what is happening inside the patient, in real time. He has the same dexterity inside the patient and more freedom of movement. He can deliver the perfect surgery more often.
The repetition in exercises allowed you to improve techniques, without the risk of hurting a real patient.
Then there’s fatigue. How long is the operation? How many operations can one surgeon do in a day, week, or month? What if the surgeon gets hand tremors during the operation as he tires? Depending on the operation, one nick of the scalpel in the wrong place could be fatal. Surgeons do extraordinary work. We respect and admire their skillset and profession. But they are human. Robots don’t tire.
And these are just the differences while under the knife.
After surgery, patients can end up with an infection at the wound site. About one in 24 patients in the U.S. suffers from a postoperative surgical-site infections (SSIs). Patients with SSIs are twice as likely to die and 60% as likely to visit the intensive care unit.
And as we said above, the robotic surgery leaves smaller and less complicated wounds. And that means the chances of infection are much lower.
Robotic surgery trumps open surgery.
And for almost 20 years, the da Vinci System – made by California-based Intuitive Surgical – has dominated the robotic-surgery market.
If you’re wary of a robot working on you in the operating room, think again. Intuitive produced a stunning video showing how delicate its machines are. It’s about a minute and a half long and you can see it here.
When I was in my graduate medical program in Oregon, I got to experience the da Vinci robot firsthand.
The surgical robot that I used had been on campus only a week. A good friend oversaw the training room for the new da Vinci System. She asked if I wanted to try it out and I answered before she finished the question… Yes!
The training room had three robotic surgical systems, which were the same as those used in an operating room. Each system held training exercises that surgeons could work through to get used to using a robot for their surgeries.
The training exercises were medical video games. They simulated and timed surgical procedures that ranged in difficulty. For example, one exercise tested how well you could place sutures. Another timed how fast you could stop a leaking artery.
The beauty was that you could try these exercises as often as you wanted. The repetition in exercises allowed you to improve techniques, without the risk of hurting a real patient.
As I pushed the needle into the simulated skin, I felt resistance, as if I were pushing a needle through real skin. The exercise did a remarkable job at recreating the sewing of a wound site.
And it was all the way down to “feeling” the surface that you push the needle through.
Last year, there were about 50 million surgeries in America. The overwhelming majority of those were open surgeries. Robotic surgery is just getting started…
Christian Olsen focuses on the most important innovative and disruptive technologies around the world today as the editor of the Stansberry Innovations Report. He finds companies operating within these trends that provide investors a safe way to invest, yet offer large upside potential. Christian has expertise in quantum computing, satellite technology, biotech software, genetic sequencing, cancer research, and infectious disease research.
