The robot and the surgeon: computer-assisted heart surgery with Alain Carpentier

The robot and the surgeon: computer-assisted heart surgery with Alain Carpentier

A surgical team from the Broussais hospital, led by Professor Alain CARPENTIER, has just developed a new technique: the instruments are controlled from a distance. It is also another vision of the human body. For the first time in the world an open heart procedure was performed with the assistance of a robot handled by the surgeon through a console. The surgeon would be in Paris and the patient on the other side of the planet: this is not impossible in the near future. Today, Professor CARPENTIER is no longer leaning on his patient but on his console. It drives remotely in the heart of the patient the mechanical hand moderated by computer. She faithfully transcribed the surgeon’s gestures, erasing even the tremors of fatigue. Professor Alain CARPENTIER, head of the Broussais cardiac surgery department: "You are inside the heart itself and all alone, with your hands that become dexterity and precision multiplied by 3. It is upsetting." Finished the large scars for the patient, the aperture is only a few centimeters, the tool is the size of a pencil. The camera allows the exploration of previously inaccessible parts of the heart and gives the hope of better treating certain heart conditions. Alain CARPENTIER: "I could operate at the institute of the heart of Saigon for example, difficult cases. Provided of course that the tools and surgeons are there. The most difficult part of the operation would be executed here. This is entirely feasible... in several years." The 6 patients so operated on are doing well. Cardiac surgery is pioneering. Other parts of the body may soon lend themselves to it.

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File : Telesurgery and telemedicine

Publication date : 21 May 1998