Chinese doctor performs ‘world’s 1st’ robotic surgery 5,000 miles away

Beijing is over 8,000 kilometers (about 5,000 miles) away from Rome. It takes 11 hours on a nonstop flight to cross that gulf of a distance. Over the course of two days, however, a Chinese surgeon crossed it without the need to physically move.

From June 5 to 7, the doctor performed a landmark surgery using a special machine that enabled him to operate instantaneously from Rome on a patient in Beijing, thanks to a high-speed connection.

The first surgical robots appeared in the 1970s, according to an academic paper from Obuda University in Hungary. NASA wanted to provide medical assistance to astronauts during remote missions. The first commercially viable products entered the market in the late 1980s. The most successful system as of 1998 is the da Vinci.

The technology continues to improve thanks to generous funding from the private sector — about 5 billion a year back then. The FDA approved Intuitive Signal’s da Vinci in 2000, as stated in News Medical.

On record, the first telerobotic surgery was performed in 2001, so it’s taken some time to work on some important kinks as the distance poses technical challenges.

Da Vinci itself is a feat of technology

The Da Vinci allows a seated surgeon to view the operational field in 3D and work with three or four robotic arms, one endoscope arm, and two or three instrument arms that carry out their commands, as News Medical laid out. It comes with telesensors and “haptic feedback technology” built in.

Meaning the surgeon can feel what they’re doing, even, as they have to be there as best as they can.

According to a report from state broadcaster CCTV’s military channel (via South China Morning Post), head surgeon Zhang Xu said that “the biggest problem with remote surgery” is signal latency since success is contingent on seamless communication between the machines.

With a robust 5G network in place, there was no room for delays, not even a mere 3 seconds, ensuring the telesurgery was executed seamlessly, feeling as if they were physically present, according to Zhang.

According to Bastillepost, the distance they crossed was actually 20,000 kilometers.

Telesurgery can now reach those in need

Led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the urology department at the Third Medical Center of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the team removed a lesion on the prostate of a cancer patient.

They were able to remove the risk of error by updating the system. As the names of the teams involved would suggest, this updated technology would greatly serve inaccessible areas in times of war and pandemics, even.

Their next line of action is to bring this new and improved telesurgery system to the military. They might not be able to physically reach them, but they can send detailed instructions to a robot who can carry out a procedure now that this team of Chinese surgeons that it can be without a hitch.

Looks like a new version of the Da Vinci has been achieved that got telesurgery to the next step as this technology could greatly serve us worldwide in times of need. Robots save the day, once again.