In the very near future it will be possible to perform a surgical procedures perhaps taking body tissue samples, installing medical devices or delivering drugs to a certain part of the body by a miniature scaled robots which are measured in millimeters or even smaller.
These Nano Surgeons will not only help to perform surgical procedures more effectively & will also dramatically reduce the patients recovery time.
According to Prof. Dr. Brad Nelson, at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EHT) in Zurich, recently told New Scientist; “It’s not impossible to think of this happening in five years. I’m convinced it’s going to get there.”
According to recent experiments there are some bright hopes for Nano Surgeons, now it’s only a matter of time for these technologies to be used in real life scenarios until solving the issues like powering & controlling miniature size units for longer periods with more accuracy.
The ophthalmic robot is designed to treat blocked veins in the eye (Information Sources: ETH Zurich)
A capsule camera driven by tiny propellors used to explore the digestive system (Information Sources: The Royal College of Surgeons / Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna)
The ViRob crawls along inside the body using its vibrating legs. It could be used to deliver drugs or medical devices to specific sites. (Information Source: New Scientist)
A capsule camera, used to explore the digestive system. Image Sources: CP Canadian Press.
Types of Nano Surgeons
Information Sources: Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems (IRIS), NewScientist.com, ETH Zurich, The Royal College of Surgeons / Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, CP Canadian Press.