Engineers at Oxford University created the robot surgeon is able to perform operations on the eyes, for quite some time, but their development, called Robotic Retinal Dissection Device (Yes, R2D2), only recently successfully passed the first clinical trials. Testing has shown that R2D2 is able to perform many complex operations, according to NBC.
During normal operation the surgeon may leave a scar on the retina and not even know it. Affect the hardness of the hand can be anything: from the age of the specialist is to slightly trembling hands. Experts say that even the blood flow in the hands of the doctor can affect the accuracy of the incision, and this, in turn, entails serious health problems of the patient. R2D2 does not have such drawbacks, so it have high expectations.
Work on them is conducted since 2011. In the autumn of last year, he successfully conducted the experimental procedure on the eye 70-year-old patient, and since the beginning of this year participated in 11 operations. The accuracy and efficiency of the robot was confirmed in all eleven cases, but while his part is quite expensive for an operation on one eye will have to pay about 35 thousand dollars.
However, to speak about full-fledged implementation is still early — there was still a lot of trials, tests and improvements. Now developers are going to equip the robot with needles for injections in the back of the eye and improve the functionality of the device.
Eye robot surgeon clinically tested
Vyacheslav Larionov