🔗 Share this article

Doctors from Scotland and the United States have performed what is considered a world-first stroke procedure employing a robot.

Prof Iris Grunwald, associated with a Scottish university, conducted the distant clot removal - the removal of blood clots following a cerebral event - on a donated body that had been contributed to medicine.

The professor was working from a major hospital in Dundee, while the subject undergoing procedure with the device was separately situated at the research facility.

Hours later, Ricardo Hanel from Florida employed the system to carry out the first transatlantic surgery from his Florida location on a donated cadaver in Dundee over 6,400km away.

The team has described it as a potential "transformative advancement" if it gains clearance for clinical application.

The doctors think this technology could transform stroke care, as a delay in accessing expert care can have a direct impact on the chances of recovery.

"It seemed like we were seeing the early preview of the coming era," said the medical expert.

"While in the past this was considered futuristic fantasy, we showed that all stages of the surgery can currently be accomplished."

The Scottish institution is the international education hub of the international stroke organization, and is the sole location in the United Kingdom where medical professionals can work with medical specimens with biological fluid circulated in the arteries to mimic treatment on a live human.

"This was the first time that we could execute the entire surgical process in a actual human specimen to demonstrate that all steps of the surgery are achievable," stated the primary researcher.

Juliet Bouverie, the head of a stroke charity, labeled the transatlantic procedure as "a remarkable innovation".

"For too long, people living in remote and rural areas have been limited in obtaining to surgical intervention," she added.

"Robotics like this could rebalance the inequity which occurs in brain care throughout Britain."

How does the technology work?

An blockage stroke happens when an blood vessel is obstructed by a blockage.

This interrupts circulation and oxygenation to the cerebral tissue, and brain cells lose function and expire.

The best treatment is a clot removal, where a specialist uses catheters and wires to extract the blockage.

But what happens when a patient is unable to reach a professional who can do the procedure?

The medical expert stated the experiment proved a robot could be linked with the identical medical instruments a specialist would normally use, and a healthcare professional who is with the patient could readily join the tools.

The expert, in a different place, could then manipulate and control their personal instruments, and the automated system then carries out exactly the same movements in live timing on the subject to carry out the surgical procedure.

The individual would be in a treatment center, while the doctor could carry out the operation using the advanced machine from anywhere - even their personal residence.

The lead researcher and the American specialist could see immediate scans of the subject in the trials, and monitor progress in real time, with the lead researcher explaining it took merely twenty minutes of preparation.

Tech giants prominent manufacturers were contributed to the research to guarantee the connectivity of the mechanical device.

"To operate from the United States to the Scottish nation with a brief latency - a blink of an eye - is truly remarkable," said the neurosurgeon.

Innovations in cerebral healthcare

The lead researcher, who has received recognition for her work and is also the senior official of the World Federation for Interventional Stroke Treatment, stated there were two main problems with a standard thrombectomy - a global shortage of specialists who can conduct it, and intervention relies upon your physical place.

In the region, there are only three places people can obtain the treatment - Dundee, Glasgow and Edinburgh. If you aren't located nearby, you must commute.

"The intervention is highly dependent on timing," said the lead researcher.

"For every six minutes of waiting, you have a 1% less chance of having a positive result.

"This technology would now provide a new way where you're not depending on where you reside - preserving the precious time where your neural tissue is degenerating."

Medical statistics showed there were {9,625 ischaemic strokes|numerous cerebral events|