The Da Vinci of the 21st century

  

When you hear the name Da Vinci, probably the first things that comes in your mind are: Italian, painter, Monna Lisa and Louvre. Well if this is the case, I have to tell you, you are old. 

We have a new Da Vinci in our century and guess what?  it is a robot. 

In fact, it is the most advanced and sophisticated robot created for surgical purposes until now; and I think that the name it has inherited is well deserved. 

This robot enables surgeons to perform micro invasive surgeries through a few small incisions. The very cool thing in this is that the doctor never touches the actual patient, only the robot does that! The surgeon in seated more that 3 meters far from the patient. He has to look on a screen in which he can see in 3D the inside of the body and move the robot using two (very complicated) joysticks in order to perform the surgery. 

Even though it sounds more like a video game than a complicated surgery, using the Da Vinci is everything but easy. I have tried it out two years ago, and even though I only had to put one little ring on a stick, it took me 30 minutes, imagine doing a coronary artery bypass! 

Doctors have to train for years before being able to perform the surgery, but at the end the outcome is that they are able to perform very complicated operations with very little consequences and rehabilitation for the patients.

In this video, you can understand how incredible this robot is. It is very precise and it can reach internal parts of the body that are impossible to be reached by bare hands. It also provides a very clear view to the doctor thanks to the 3D camera.

This is the future guys, in a few years it won’t be  a doctor performing the surgery anymore, but a robot; and I don’t know what you think about it but to me this sounds very weird. Not sure if I would trust a robot in a situation of life or death, would you?