AI is enabling robots to assist in surgery. What to know

A surgeon in Chile recently described how an AI-guided camera allowed him to perform a gallbladder removal surgery alone. In July, scientists at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore announced that they had used artificial intelligence (AI) to train a surgical robot to perform a lengthy piece of a gallbladder removal operation in a simulated setting, with verbal guidance. While these cases are far from commonplace, they could mark the start of an interesting trend for journalists to follow.

Ricardo Funke, chief of surgery at Clinica Las Condes in Santiago, used an AI-guided camera during a gallbladder removal operation in September, according to a Reuters report. The procedure combined magnetic surgical instruments with software that autonomously directed the surgical camera, the report said, so the camera tracked the surgeon's tools inside the body and adjusted angles - tasks normally provided by a human assistant.

"The camera was following me wherever I moved my hands and the whole process was excellent," Funke told Reuters. "This camera lets us do the surgery alone."

In a July study published in Science Robotics, researchers described how they trained their hierarchical surgical robot transformer, SRT-H, to perform part of a gallbladder removal surgery in a laboratory setting. Researchers created an AI model with natural language processing capabilities similar to ChatGPT for their robot. The robot was trained by watching videos of gallbladder surgeries and then was able to operate on eight pig gallbladders, responding to and learning from voice commands from the team, just like a novice surgeon working with a mentor, according to a university news release.

SRT-H performed a minutes-long string of 17 tasks, such as identifying ducts and arteries, placing clips and cutting with scissors. It adapted to individual anatomical features in real-time, made decisions on the fly and self-corrected when things didn't go as expected, the announcement said. The robot performed the surgery with 100% accuracy, they said.

A potentially booming business

These aren't the only examples of AI-powered surgical tools. Companies, universities and research centers have been developing AI-assisted tools to perform or assist in surgery, Reuters reported. The global surgical robot market is estimated to reach $64.4 billion by 2034, the article said, citing statistics from Precedence Research, a market research and consulting firm.

AI-powered robotic surgery "is not just a trend but a fundamental shift that aims to elevate minimally invasive procedures to new heights," wrote Bhushan Jayeshkumar Patel, a surgical robotics technology expert, in Forbes. "By leveraging AI's capabilities in data processing, decision making and real-time adaptation, robotic surgery can achieve unprecedented levels of accuracy and efficiency."

A meta-analysis of 25 peer-reviewed studies on AI-driven robotic surgery, published in the Journal of Robotic Surgery in June, found that AI-assisted robotic surgeries demonstrated a 25% reduction in operating time and 30% decrease in intraoperative complications compared to manual methods. Surgical precision improved by 40%, and patient recovery times were shortened by an average of 15%, with lower postoperative pain scores.

"Despite upfront costs and ethical concerns, continued innovation and integration promise substantial benefits for patient safety and health care resource optimization," wrote the author, Jack Ng Kok Wah, Ph.D., a senior lecturer at Multimedia University in Malaysia.

Chinese University of Hong Kong's experience

A team led by the Chinese University of Hong Kong developed an AI-automated robotic arm designed to function as a third hand for surgeons in routine tasks like retracting tissue, picking up gauze and clipping blood vessels, the South China Morning Post reported on Sept. 10. In this system, surgeons control two additional robotic arms from a control console to view live footage during operations. The AI platform analyses endoscopic images in real time to interpret the surgical scene and determine the surgeon's needs, the article said. The AI-controlled arm can complete auxiliary tasks for the surgeon so they don't have to switch controls. The work was reported in Science Robotics in July.

During their study, a surgeon performed a robotic-assisted detachment of a pig's stomach, the South China Morning Post article said. The AI-directed arm helped with automated tasks such as picking up gauze placed near the pig's stomach, or clipping blood vessels. The robot successfully performed four of six clipping attempts.

Study coauthor Yip Hon-chi told the newspaper that "the surgeon is still fully in charge, just like a driver" and could perform an override if the AI malfunctioned. "The AI-automated arm is like an assistant to my surgery," Yip said.

There are several implementation challenges, experts said. They include integrating AI systems into current workflows and regularly ensuring that the AI system's outputs are accurate and reliable, Patel said. Data security is another, as is safety, "given that AI may produce inaccurate recommendations in high-stakes situations due to unexpected changes or inadequate data inputs," he said.

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