Robots team up for surgery

IF a soldier is severely wounded, they have a markedly better chance of survival if they are seen by a doctor within the hour. But what if the closest field hospital is more than an hour away, or the nearby unit doesn't have the necessary medical expertise?

Help could come in the form of a mobile operating theatre, according to a consortium led by non-profit lab SRI International, based in Menlo Park, California. The device, called Trauma Pod, is still in the early stages, but its developers claim it will ultimately be able to retrieve someone from the battlefield, diagnose them, and perform lifesaving procedures while transferring them to hospital.

Inside the prototype theatre are a team of robots, led by a robotic surgeon remotely controlled by an actual surgeon. The lead robot has three arms under the surgeon's control: one holds an endoscope to allow the surgeon to see inside the patient while the other two grip the surgical tools.

Ultimately, the robot surgeon will be able to perform "temporary fix" procedures to buy the patient a few more hours until they reach a hospital, says lead developer Pablo Garcia at SRI International. "The system will focus on damage control surgery, the minimum necessary to stabilise someone," he says. "It could provide airway control, relieve immediate life-threatening injuries such as a collapsed lung, or stop bleeding temporarily."