THE SURGERY
NON-INVASIVE
SURGERY
· Telesurgery and
keyhole surgery
Telesurgery has already made it possible for surgeons in Italy, and Japan, to operate on a patient six miles away as detailed video footage of the patient’s body is beamed back to the doctor who sees it on a screen. Keyhole surgery requires only a tiny incision through which an endoscope is inserted, which allow the surgeon to view the operation on a video monitor and helps to minimize the trauma of surgery.
· Voice-operated robots
that never get tired
The next step on from telesurgery is robosurgery. In the USA, one company is already applying to market a robosurgeon for use on humans. Aesop, engineered by Computer Motion, is a voice-operated robot capable of recognizing 22 commands. Unlike a real life surgeon, a robosurgeon does not get tired, its hands never shake and its delicate arms make it an ideal aid in Keyhole heart surgery. The robot only responds to the normal speech patterns of one particular doctor, so there is no danger it would act on commands screamed by that doctor, or any other, in the heat of the moment.
· Open-heart surgery
without a blood transfusion
At Cornell University Medical Center, New York, USA, doctors have successfully carried out open heart surgery without blood transfusions. Patients receive a course of injections in the weeks leading up to surgery and this encourages the bone marrow to produce more blood. The are also given vitamin and iron supplements. During surgery, doctors administer a powerful clotting agent, and any spoilt blood is mixed with an anti clotting agent, purified, and pumped back into the body. Even blood which hemorrhages is not wasted it is washed, filtered, spun down, and returned to surgeons for use again.
DESIGNER
BODIES
· Xenotransplantation
gives humans animal organs
Scientists anticipate that animals such as pigs might be used to produce a number of human organs. Called xenotransplantation, this research is focusing on breeding pigs which can mimic human antigens, substances which aid the production of antibodies, because the main obstacle to transplanting organs is that the human body usually rejects them. Tissues such as heart valves have already been transplanted from pigs to humans, as liver and brain cell implants. However, some scientists still believe xenotransplantation carries too great a risk of animal infections.
· Human skin that can
be grown in two weeks
Scientists believe that, in the future, there is no reason why they should not be able to replicate any part of the human body. At Advanced Tissue Sciences, in San Diego, USA, human skin can be grown in just two weeks, bone in six weeks, and liver in eight weeks-the same speed of development as in the womb. Tissue is grown by injecting cells onto a ‘scaffold’ of biodegradable fabric, and feeding them a mix of vitamins, glucose, amino-acids, and serum proteins.
