Revolutionary device will improve Heart Surgery dramatically

Experts in the U.K. are developing a flexible surgical robot, known as the i-Snake, which they say could revolutionize keyhole surgery.

The i-Snake is not the latest gadget from the Apple company, but it's a long tube housing special motors, sensors and imaging tools that could be used for heart bypass surgery.
It could enable surgeons to do complex procedures previously possible only through more invasive techniques.

But it could also be used to diagnose problems in the gut and bowel by acting as the surgeon's hands and eyes in hard to reach places inside the body.

A team at Imperial College London has been granted £2.1 million for the work.
The Imperial College team will test the device initially in the laboratory before it is used on patients.

Minimally invasive surgery has obvious advantages: it can mean smaller scars, reduced hospital stays and shorter recovery times.
Surgeons are also looking at ways to avoid skin incisions altogether.

One approach is Natural Orifice Translumenal Endoscopic Surgery or Notes.
This means operating in the peritoneal space through natural orifices or cavities, such as the bowel.

England's Health Minister and surgeon Lord Darzi said: "The unrivalled imaging and sensing capabilities coupled with the accessibility and sensitivity of i-Snake will enable more complex diagnostic and therapeutic procedures than are currently possible."

Source: Telegraph

Editor:

"In the coming years, we will see more and more that nifty technology will dominate the scalpel in the operating room"