Robotic device for scar-free surgeries

HYDERABAD: A flexible robotic endoscopic device which can perform surgeries of the gut without any incisions has been developed by doctors here at the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology (AIG). The entire process is carried out using electronic controls and the technique can revolutionise surgery-sans-sutures.The technique was developed in collaboration with Nanyang Technological University and National University Hospital, Singapore. Veerabhadra Rao, 45, of Warangal was the first patient to be treated using this technology. The  robotic flexible endoscopic technique was used successfully  in removing a 4.14 cm large tumour from the patient’s stomach who was diagnosed with an early stage of gastric cancer. It was a 17-minute surgery and the patient was discharged in four hours.“It takes nearly eight hours to perform a similar surgery using conventional methods. The precision and consistency obtained using this technique is unmatched,” said Dr. Nageshwar Reddy of the AIG. It took six years for the doctors to develop this technology. The initial tests were performed on animals. The technology can be utilised to operate tumours, ulcers and other gut-related surgeries.The average cost of the surgery ranges from Rs. 50,000 - 1 lakh. The doctors at AIG were, however, hopeful that commercialisation of this technique would bring down the average cost to Rs. 5,000. The institute has solicited participation of the department of science and technology and department of biotechnology  to scale up the production of this machine. “We would like to have a fruitful collaboration between engineers from our country with the medical community to develop and fine tune such instruments,” said  Nageshwar Reddy.The robotic arms developed for this purpose measure 6 mm in diameter and are manoeuvred through controls similar to joystick used in video games to perform the surgery. The arms are sensitive to touch and pressure so that the doctor monitoring the device knows the force being exerted on the tissues. The machine is used to perform surgeries in visceral organs such as liver and kidneys where the tube will be inserted through the mouth without leaving scars on the body, said Dr. Louis Phee of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, who worked to develop this technology.