For one, instruments are not in the surgeon's direct control, being manipulated by assistants. And the instruments' positioning within the body is subject to human tremors and fatigue, which makes working on minute structures difficult and dangerous. While it is possible to carry out minimally invasive heart surgery, it can entail the surgeon having to adopt awkward physical positions for prolonged periods of time. Add voice control for the robot, the operating table and lighting, and the surgeon is in direct control of the entire procedure. Heart surgery carried out by robot-controlled endoscopy, on the other hand, means for a drastically reduced recovery time of three to four days in hospital and then a further two weeks before normal activities can be resumed.
Operations take less time and therefore costs are reduced.
Anthony De Souza, a surgeon at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, has carried out minimally invasive heart bypass surgery on a beating heart using robots made by Californian firm Computer Motion. In the chest, I'm limited by space. To aid this, we could do keyhole surgery but things are still at a distance. If you are doing fine work, you want to be placing things accurately. The advantages of a robot are operating accurately at a distance.