9/19 Extra: Trans-Atlantic Surgery

I couldn't resist posting this one, and it kind of fits in with today's theme of "Technology doing some really cool shit."

The picture is of robots in France removing a gall bladder. There's nothing special about this, except that the doctor is in New York. He's doing this by controlling robots over an optical link. The lag time was 200 milliseconds, while 330 is considered "safe".

It's pretty incredible to think about everything that goes into this - he's sending 0's and 1's that aren't even palpable, the robots on the other end are decoding them and then moving accordingly. And it worked well - the woman was released two days later.

It's an amazing time to be alive.

[Count Zero]

I think that woman is insane.


(and fat)

[lisa]

This looks like the type of surgery that they usually do with miniature remote control instruments (so they can make SMALL incisions) anyhow. So, the only difference here is that the surgeon is not in the same room as the patient -- cool, nevertheless, but not surprising.

[ndetroit]

I know that the woman *seems* fat, but she's not.

.......I'm not really a doctor (I don't even play one on TV), but I've watched my fair share of discovery channel/TLC operations, and it seems like every time they operate near the stomach region, the person has this grossly overinflated gut...

I dunno why..... maybe they pump them full of some kind of inert gas or something, but trust me, if you've seen the before/after pics of these people, they're not as fat as the operating table makes them look..


In related news.... will more/less successful doctors begin to accuse each other of being LPB's/HPB's?

they put balloons in the person and inflate them so the skin stretches. that's why they look so huge. on a grossly overweight person, the skin wouldn't be so tight and smooth.

as for "it's nothing surprising" - not really, but when you think about everything that makes it work, it's amazing. just need to appreciate the world that we live in today. another cool thing is this - imagine if every hospital had one of these set up. say you're in china and you get an injury/sick/whatever, and it's life threatening, but the best doctor in the world for that specific incident is in south africa or la or boston or whatever... no need to risk waiting to fly the patient home/fly the doctor there...

[lisa]

Originally posted by dhamsaic
as for "it's nothing surprising" - not really, but when you think about everything that makes it work, it's amazing.

Well, my point was that the distance is not amazing. That's easy once you have the "operate by remote control" and decent telecommunications. Each of those (which we have had for years) is amazing, but the ability to combine the two is obvious -- though quite a cool accomplishment as a "finished product."

[CharlieG]

Originally posted by ndetroit
I know that the woman *seems* fat, but she's not.

<snip>I dunno why..... maybe they pump them full of some kind of inert gas or something, <snip>

Having had the NON robotic version of that surgery done (It's called a Laproscopic Coleocystecomy (sp?) or a Lap Coly for short), they DO inflate your gut to give them room to work! There are something like 4 holes made, 2 of which are ONLY to put in the gas (Nitrogen I believe). The main part of the surgery is through the navel. The scars are about the size you would get from a pimple, except for the one in the navel

I _WALKED_ out of the hospital that night. I REALLY should have waited for the wheelchair - it was a LONG walk, and I was a hurting pup by the end. One T&C3 that night, and after that, just Advil (But HIGH dose). I was back at work in 5 days, and back at the gym in 3 weeks