Future of Minimal Access Surgery

Remote possibilities                                                                             

04/04/2002 -- In the future remote handling technology will overcome the manipulative restriction in the current instruments.  There is no doubt 20 years from now some surgeons will be operating exclusively via a computer interface controlling a master–slave manipulator. If computer-controlled machinery can mimic the awareness, adaptability and knowledge of a human surgeon, such a takeover in the operating theatre is actually realistic. In the operating room of the future, physicians will use tiny high-tech tools to travel inside the body with dexterity and precision beyond imagining. The future is now But the future of any new technology depends upon how well the training is.

Although the potential of robotic surgery is just beginning but, progress may come quickly. Laparoscopic gallbladder surgery was first done 1987, but it became standard within five years. Just think about a surgeon ! He picks up this black box and waves it over your body, and you're fixed. How's that going to happen? One day a surgeon may use robotic devices to enter the body through its own orifices. They could carry medical instruments inside the body, where they would be manipulated by simple computer commands.

Prof. Dr. R. K. Mishra.

Minimal Access Surgeon