Surgical robot used for the first time to operate inside a man’s eyes
A team of surgeons at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital in the UK have successfully used a robot to operate inside the eye and restore sight for the very first time. The device was controlled via a joystick to remove a membrane that is one-hundredth of a millimeter thin.
Bill Beaver, a 70-year-old curate in Oxford, had a membrane growing at the back of his right eye. The pressure created a hole in his retina which was destroying his central vision. According to the patient, his vision in that eye was restricted to the periphery. He underwent the pioneering surgical technique at the end of August.
Robot-assisted surgeries are already commonplace but it has never been used inside the eye until now. Professor Robert MacLaren from University of Oxford led the procedure. He said that operating at the back of the eye requires great precision, and the challenge they faced was getting a robot system that could do that through a tiny hole in the wall of the eye without causing damage while moving around.
They used a surgical robot was developed by a Dutch company, a spin-out of Eindhoven University of Technology, called Preceyes. It acts like a mechanical hand. It has seven motors and is able to filter out hand tremors from the surgeon.
The surgeon uses a joystick and touch-screen to guide a thin needle into the eye, while monitoring its progress through a microscope.Large movements of the joystick result in tiny movements of the robot, and if the surgeon releases their grip any movement is frozen.
The procedure resulted in the restoration of the patient’s central vision in his right eye. A gas bubble in the eye means he is currently short sighted, but normal distance vision will return in the coming months.
In a trial funded by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, 12 patients are set to undergo surgical procedures using the robot. Additional funding is being provided by Zizoz, a Dutch charity for patients with choroideremia, a genetic form of blindness which might be a future target for treatment using the robot.
Prof. MacLaren is hoping that the robot will allow surgeons to improve on current operations and perform more complex and delicate operations that are currently impossible with only the human hand.
The robot system is a prototype and as yet the company has not revealed what it will cost to purchase.
Category: Features, Technology & Devices