“The French Surgeon. Prof. Jacques Marescaux removed the gall bladder of a 68 year old female”. “An everyday occurrence!” “Yes ! If not for the fact that they were nearly 7000km apart.” Fig.1. Surgeon cannot see the patient directly.
The professor leading a team of surgeons operated from ‘Institute for Research into Cancer of the Digestive system’, in New York while the patient was in a hospital in Strasbourg, France. This unbelievable surgical feat actually took place on the 7th of September in 2001. The advanced technology which made the operation possible required more than three decades to develop.
In the 19th Century Dr. Philipp Bozzini (Ger) looked into a person’s body cavities using a mirror system to reflect the light from a candle. His action was condemned by the Vienna Medical Society.
His grave stone reads as follows: ““To the devote soul of Philipp Bozzini, doctor of medicine, who was the first to explore the inside of organs through his ingenious light projector ……His faithful friend F.F …” He succumbed on the night ….. 5th day of April 1809, in his 36th year of life.
it is the instrument he used that developed to become the endoscope. The technique he used has become 'endoscopy'.
There are many ‘scopes’ . telescope, periscope etc. “Endo” means within. So the instrument designed to peep into the body cavities became the “ENDOSCOPE”. With the
advancement of Electricity, lenses, fibre optics and miniature tools it became possible to transfer a surgeons eyes and fingers along with the slicing and cauterising instruments into the abdomen, thorax, womb or even the alimentary canal.
Modern electronics coupled with the computer enables a surgeon to obtain 3D views of the tissues and even record them to be examined by any other medical men.
The next major development was the Robotic Surgery. The patient is the theatre table with the anaesthetist, one or two assistants and a nurse. The surgeon sits at a computer. He sees the organs and tissues on a screen and just as he plays a computer game he can cauterise a duodenal ulcer.
Robotic surgery can suppress surgeon’s hand tremors. Hand movements could be more precise due to scaling. High speed communication net works have made tele-surgery a reality.
Reference: http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Telesurgery.aspx
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