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. 1995 Dec 2;311(7018):1479–1482. doi: 10.1136/bmj.311.7018.1479

Robots in operating theatres.

R A Buckingham 1, R O Buckingham 1
PMCID: PMC2543705  PMID: 8520340

Abstract

Robots designed for surgery have three main advantages over humans. They have greater three dimensional spatial accuracy, are more reliable, and can achieve much greater precision. Although few surgical robots are yet in clinical trials one or two have advanced to the stage of seeking approval from the UK's Medical Devices Agency and the US Federal Drug Administration. Safety is a key concern. A robotic device can be designed in an intrinsically safe way by restricting its range of movement to an area where it can do no damage. Furthermore, safety can be increased by making it passive, guided at all times by a surgeon. Nevertheless, some of the most promising developments may come from robots that are active (monitored rather than controlled by the surgeon) and not limited to intrinsically safe motion.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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