🔗 Share this article

Medical professionals from Scotland and America have accomplished what is considered a world-first stroke procedure using a robot.

Prof Iris Grunwald, from a medical institution, conducted the distant clot removal - the removal of blood clots following a brain attack - on a human cadaver that had been provided for research.

The surgeon was working from a treatment center in Dundee, while the specimen being treated via the system was at another location at the research facility.

Subsequently, a medical specialist from the American state used the system to conduct the first transatlantic surgery from his American facility on a donated cadaver in the Scottish city over 4,000 miles away.

The research collective has called it a potential "game changer" if it gains clearance for clinical application.

The doctors believe this innovation could change stroke care, as a slow access to specialist treatment can have a direct impact on the healing potential.

"The experience was we were seeing the first glimpse of the next generation," said Prof Grunwald.

"Where previously this was regarded as theoretical concept, we showed that each phase of the surgery can already be done."

The Scottish institution is the international education hub of the World Federation for Interventional Stroke Treatment, and is the only place in the United Kingdom where surgeons can operate on medical specimens with human blood pumped through the blood pathways to simulate procedures on a live human.

"This represented the pioneering moment that we could execute the complete clot removal operation in a actual human specimen to demonstrate that each stage of the procedure are achievable," explained Prof Grunwald.

Juliet Bouverie, the head of a health foundation, described the intercontinental surgery as "an extraordinary advancement".

"During many years, people living in remote and rural areas have been deprived of access to clot removal," she stated.

"Robotics like this could correct the imbalance which exists in brain care across the UK."

How does the system function?

An brain attack takes place when an vascular pathway is clogged by a clot.

This disrupts vascular flow to the neural matter, and neural cells stop functioning and deteriorate.

The optimal therapy is a clot removal, where a surgeon uses medical instruments to extract the blockage.

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

The lead researcher explained the study proved a robot could be connected to the equivalent surgical tools a surgeon would normally use, and a medical staff who is attending the case could simply attach the tools.

The specialist, in a different place, could then manipulate and control their individual tools, and the automated system then executes comparable motions in real time on the subject to perform the thrombectomy.

The subject would be in a hospital operating room, while the surgeon could conduct the surgery with the technological system from any location - even their own home.

Prof Grunwald and Ricardo Hanel could view real-time imaging of the body in the experiments, and track developments in real time, with the Scottish specialist explaining it took merely twenty minutes of training.

Tech giants Nvidia and Ericsson were involved in the project to secure the network connection of the robot.

"To conduct procedures from the US to Britain with a brief latency - an instant - is truly remarkable," stated the neurosurgeon.

Advancements in brain care

The lead researcher, who has won an award for her research and is also the executive member of the international medical organization, said there were key issues with a conventional clot removal - a international lack of specialists who can perform it, and care is determined by your location.

In the region, there are only three places patients can access the surgery - urban centers. If you aren't located nearby, you must commute.

"The treatment is extremely time-critical," said the medical expert.

"Each six-minute postponement, you have a one percent reduced probability of having a successful recovery.

"This innovation would now offer a new way where you're not depending on where you live - conserving the valuable minutes where your neural tissue is degenerating."

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