Remote robotic surgery is safe from thousands of miles away, say researchers

Credit: Kulpreya Chaichatpornsuk

By Ella Pickover, PA Media and Emma Wilkinson

Surgeons can safely perform two common operations from up to 1,700 miles away, the equivalent of a medic in southern Europe operating on a patient in the UK, according to a study.

To examine whether telesurgery done with a surgical robot operated via a secure telecommunication link was comparable to surgery performed locally using robotic-assisted techniques, researchers from China assessed patients who had a prostatectomy or a partial nephrectomy to remove a kidney tumour.

Some 72 patients were randomly assigned to be given telesurgery or local surgery with the results showing that telesurgery “was not inferior to local surgery in terms of the probability of surgical success”.

The median age of patients was 61 years in the telesurgery group and 65 years in the local surgery group and both groups had similar demographic and disease-related factors.

Surgeons involved were experienced having completed more than 500 robot assisted keyhole procedures and patients had check-ups four and six weeks after surgery.