Intraocular Robotic Surgery Feasible: First-in-Human Study
06/25/2018
For the first time in humans, a remotely controlled electronic robotic device has been used to perform highly precise intraocular surgery, according to a Reuters report.
“The robot has the potential to operate with far more precision than we can achieve with the human hand. The retina at the back of the eye is about 1/3 of a millimetre thick. It can be challenging operating under it or within it without causing at least some degree of damage,” Dr. Robert E. MacLaren of the University of Oxford, U.K., told Reuters Health by email.
“The steadiness of the robotic device,” he added, “potentially improves safety and we found it was equally effective as the human in our prospective randomised clinical trial.”