Robotic Eye Surgery Using PRECEYES Surgical System
The tech of the future is here
Robots are playing their role in every field and everywhere in our lives. Now, they are reaching our operating theaters and offering their services. In this way, they made our lives more comfortable and protective. Robots are already used in various capacities from prostate operation to gallbladder procedures. And now they have come for our eyes.
In 2016, researchers at the University Of Oxford facilitated a clinical trial for eye surgery. The trial is to test the PRECEYES surgical system, a robot formed to carry out the operation on the retina. The retina is an uppermost layer at the back of the eyeball. They published their results in the journal named Nature Biomedical Engineering.
So, what exactly is PRECEYES?
PRECEYES is a group of several robot surgeons in growth. Although they are not quickly working as their human equivalent. They are exact, and their precision will decrease the risk and open new ways to various kinds of surgery that impossible before.
The robotic surgery
For controlling the mobile arm of the PRECEYES system, the surgeon uses a joystick. Being an end to end robotic system, doctors attached many instruments to the arm. It lessens any chance of slight trembling that plaque even the fixed-handedness of humans.
For the research purpose, the analytics enrolled 12 patients who needed a membrane separated from their retina. Doctors traditionally performed their six surgeries while others have been done by robot-aided eye surgery.
The surgeries start with a mini surgical cut just above the pupil by which the surgeon inserts a light. For the robotic purpose, the surgeon puts the robot via an incision less than 1 mm in diameter, a little below the pupil. It distinguishes the membrane from the eye; then, it removes the layer from the eye through the same hole it comes. When surgeons conducted their surgeries without the robot, all things are done manually. They use microsurgical instruments while looking via an operating microscope.
According to the Oxford press release, all the 12 surgeries were successful; To some extent, they found that the robot made the surgeon more efficient than usual. In the second stage of the trial, doctors used the robot on three patients to break down below-retina illnesses that could cause vision loss. They gained success in these surgeries too.
Now the researchers have evidence that they can use PRECEYES for routine purposes. And they turn there work for more delicate operations too.
MacLaren press release
The next aim will be to use the robotic operation devices for accurate and tiny distressing delivery of gene therapy to the retina.
While doctors already perform such surgeries on patients who are not able to see. Their hands are not steady enough to point specific spots on the retina for patients who have some vision. MacLaren said to the new scientists that PRECEYES might also help surgeons to rightly open blood vessels or directly inject treatments into patient’s optic nerves. They are two operations that are currently impossible.
For more information, you can check out the official brochure-
Editorial Note-
Aiman is a guest blogger at The Research Nest. She mainly writes website content with SEO texture, but also has experience with blog posts, news, and other kinds of writing. For more tech-related content from the author, visit https://hootrabbit.com/.
