Surgery is essential for saving lives and improving the quality of life. Without it, many people wouldn’t be able to survive certain injuries or illnesses. Luckily, over the years, surgery technology has begun to soar. There have been surgical advances that help to push forward innovation in the healthcare industry.
To learn more about surgery technology, take a look at these new and improved surgical advances:
Surgical Robots
The introduction of robotics into surgical procedures has been one of the most incredible breakthroughs in recent years. More and more operating rooms have started to use robotic machines to conduct complex procedures, beginning with the Da Vinci surgical robot. However, these robots are still supervised by human medical professionals.
But due to their higher degree of stability and accuracy while operating in tight spaces, the robots are able to conduct procedures with a higher degree of accuracy than an experienced surgeon.
Also, computer-controlled surgical robots have started to make their way into the surgical room for simple functions such as suturing incisions. Some also claim that full-robotic surgery, but under human control, will one day be probable.
However, some surgical robots may need wire rope and pulleys to function properly during the procedures.
Virtual Planning for Surgical Procedures
The preparation process is one side of surgery technology that most people never get to see. It’s the method in which surgeons and support workers select the best procedures and techniques for operations on real patients. This method can be lengthy and labor-intensive, but in the past couple of years, the use of virtual reality for simulation has increased considerably.
In order to prepare the exact path of the surgical process, surgeons will now use VR technology, combined with patient imaging scans. This style of preparation is quicker and in many cases, more effective than conventional approaches, facilitating lower wait times in the actual operating room before surgery and more efficient operation.
Electrosurgical Technology
The industrial operation room includes a multitude of sophisticated items of electrical equipment, far from the relatively primitive collection of hand instruments, stitches, and sutures that surgeons once had access to. Electrosurgical instruments, which use electrical energy to perform tasks such as making cauterizing wound incisions, are among these pieces of equipment.
While these systems are of great use in the form of smoke, they often generate dangerous by-products. Smoke evacuation systems have since had to be developed to promote their expanded use in surgery.
In fact, smoke pencils and other smoke escape instruments are increasingly becoming a routine method in operations rooms due to their usefulness in reducing this common environmental threat.
Precise Brain Biopsy Needles
A brain biopsy has always been one of the most delicate biopsy techniques. A brain tissue biopsy can cause catastrophic problems without severe caution.
However, modern so-called ” smart needles,” make this operation much better for patients and much simpler for surgeons. Such needles utilize imaging equipment that helps surgeons to see blood vessels and other tissue directly. These needles can significantly minimize the risk of unintended vessel injury during a brain biopsy when paired with software capable of identifying blood vessels.
In order to minimize the risks associated with other internal processes, related surgery technology has been developed.
Endoscopic Brain Surgery
Without needing to open the skull, future brain tumors will also be removed by the nose. This minimally invasive method may sound straightforward, harkening back to the Egyptian mummification method of organ removal through the nose, but endoscopic brain surgery is actually a complicated operation that was years in the making.
In addition, scientific advancements have been even more advanced with surgical imaging, our ability to see what is going on in the brain and nasal cavities. And now we have sleek, slender instruments to penetrate the nostrils, less damaging the healthy tissue around them.
Fewer and narrower incisions are required by endoscopic procedures, resulting in faster healing and less scarring than craniotomy. And surgeons don’t have to move the brain about as far as we had to during craniotomy by reaching the pituitary adenomas, meningiomas, and chordomas from the bottom of the brain from the nasal cavity. It lowers the chance of injuring healthy tissue and results in faster healing.
Stereotactic Radiosurgery
Not many years ago, there were minimal medical choices for patients who had a pituitary tumor, auditory neuroma, or meningioma: conventional craniotomy to remove the tumor, followed by fractionated radiation.
Usually, conventional radiation is administered to the tumor and underlying tissue, which can lead to hair loss, healthy tissue injury, and changes in the skin. Everything was modified by stereotactic radiosurgery.
Stereotactic techniques include highly concentrated tumor-only radiation, which spares more healthy tissue and greatly decreases side effects. Perhaps the best advantage is that care can typically be done in only one session, saving patients time and the difficulty of commuting.
In comparison to more conventional methods, we regularly see more surgery technology for the use of stereotactic radiosurgery, so patients with a larger spectrum of brain tumors will likely be suitable as time goes by.
Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy
Laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) is a state-of-the-art medical technology that can use a minor incision in the skull to ablate (destroy with heat) a tumor.
The surgeon incorporates a laser fiber into the incision in this minimally invasive operation and guides it to the tumor. Heat is transmitted by the laser, killing the tumor while sparing healthy underlying tissue. Using real-time MRI simulation, we monitor the patient’s brain to monitor to see whether regions of the brain get hot.
Surgery Technology at Its Finest
Thanks to surgery technology, medical procedures have become a lot easier. When it comes to saving lives and bettering the health of humans, advanced medical technology is a necessity. Luckily for society, scientists and medical professionals alike have worked diligently to push surgical advances forward.
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