Surgical robot achieves milestone on sub-millimetre vessels

One of the strengths of a surgical robot is that, by scaling down the movements of a surgeon's hands on their controls, they allow greater precision than can often be achieved by conventional manual surgery. The Dutch team, at Maastricht UMC+ (University Medical Centre), was using robots developed by Microsure – a spin-off from the medical centre and Eindhoven University of Technology – to perform the procedure to surgically treat a condition called lymphoedema.

Lymphoedema is a common side effect of breast cancer treatment. It occurs when the lymphatic system – part of the body's processes for dealing with waste products in the bloodstream – becomes compromised and allows fluids to build up where they should not. This is potentially serious, as it can be painful and lead to infection. The super microsurgery is a new and promising treatment for this condition, involving the connection of lymphatic vessels to blood vessels to give the fluid another route through which it can drain. But because the vessels involved are so small, the operation is difficult and stressful and only a few surgeons in the world are capable of carrying it out.