Dr Shannon Chan in Hong Kong, remotely operating the endoscopic system in Switzerland.
Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Faculty of Medicine (CU Medicine) have successfully completed a teleoperated magnetic endoscopy surgery, marking a significant achievement in medical science. Using a remote-controlled device, a biopsy of the stomach wall was taken during the surgery on a swine model.
A clinician who was physically present in the operating room in Hong Kong and a remote specialist who was stationed 9,300 kilometres distant in Zurich, Switzerland, both participated in the process. Advanced technology was used by both experts to control the procedure; the distant expert used a game controller from an operator console in Zurich.
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This study demonstrates how this cutting-edge technology may be able to provide speciality surgical treatment in remote areas, particularly when access to local expertise may be limited. The research findings were released by Advanced Intelligent Systems, which is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal.
“Teleoperated endoscopy offers not only remote surgical training and mentoring but also immediate diagnostic and surgical care in remote areas, particularly when local expertise is lacking. A remote expert can even instruct trained nurses to perform the procedures. Millions of patients worldwide will be able to be diagnosed and treated for gastrointestinal cancer in a timely manner as endoscopic technology becomes more accessible,” said Dr Shannon Melissa Chan, Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at CU Medicine.
“In the next step of our research, we will be performing tele-endoscopy on a human stomach. In addition to endoscopic procedures, such as cancer screening, there is a lot of potential for this technology. This includes its application to other areas of the gastrointestinal tract, to the neurovascular system, and in foetal surgery,” said Professor Dr Bradley Nelson, Director of the Multi-Scale Robotics Lab, Head of the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, ETH Zurich.
A magnetic endoscope, controlled by an external magnetic field, was successfully tested on a sedated pig by a Zurich surgeon using a video game controller. Other tests have used a similar game controller. The endoscope made a U-turn and took a stomach biopsy, with low latency under 300 milliseconds. This experiment suggests that remote surgeries, potentially even for astronauts, could soon be feasible, particularly benefiting patients in remote areas.
