Snakes on an operating table

A snakelike robot that operates in a patient’s throat and a steady-hand that cancels out a surgeon’s natural tremor may operate alongside doctors in future operating rooms.

Johns Hopkins University researchers are designing systems and instruments which could someday help doctors treat patients more safely and effectively and allow them to perform surgical tasks that are nearly impossible today.

The tools include a snakelike robot that could enable surgeons, operating in the narrow throat region, to make incisions and tie sutures with greater dexterity and precision. Another robot, the steady-hand, may curb a surgeon's natural tremor and allow the doctor to inject drugs into tiny blood vessels in the eye, dissolving clots that can damage vision.

Teams in the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Centre are building these and other projects for Computer-Integrated Surgical Systems and Technology, based at Johns Hopkins.

Working closely with physicians from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the centre’s engineers and computer scientists are building robotic assistants intended to enhance a surgeon's skills. They are devising detailed visual displays to guide a doctor before and during a difficult medical procedure and planning digital workstations that would give the physician instant access to an enormous amount of medical information about the patient.