SpineAssist robot tours spinal canal with camera in tow

While ridiculously small robots crawling around in our bodies seems quite painful (and in some cases, it is), a team headed by Moshe Shoham of Haifa's Technion is developing a smoother riding robot to cruise the friendly passageways of the spinal canal. Dubbed the SpineAssist, this low-powered microbot is being crafted to "aid surgeons in performing delicate spinal procedures" by propelling itself through the water-like cerebral spinal fluid and channeling live video / snapshots back to the doctors in charge. Researchers have already engineered the propulsion system, and describe the device as a "free-swimming endoscope" with two actuators and swimming tails that will lug a camera into the fragile depths. Shoham estimates that a few more years of work will be needed to up its payload capacity and shrink it to an appropriate size, but at least someone's working on taking the back aches out of surgery, eh?

[Thanks, William]

[Gil @ Nov 20th 2006 5:20PM]

Will Smith: "Aw hell no!"


I'm all for robots but that idea is a disaster waiting to happen. One slip and goodbye motor functions.

[Josh @ Nov 20th 2006 5:38PM]

So nor would you have any kind of surgery whatsoever - one slip of the surgeon's wrist near an artery and goodbye life!

[Gil @ Nov 20th 2006 5:48PM]

Artery is one thing. Nerve tissue is a lot easier to damage.

[Paul @ Nov 21st 2006 1:15AM]

As a spinal cord injured person, I can appreciate the uses of this. It will make a huge difference in many of our lives.

To the person who said "one slip and good bye motor function", many times the motor function is limited or gone, with some help, this might be able to be restored.

Let's hope this isn't condemed to the files like stem cell research is.

[jmchez @ Nov 20th 2006 7:17PM]

Yet another very high tech invention coming out of Israel. Still waiting for anything, anything at all, to be developed in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Iran or (yeah, right) Saudi Arabia.

Still waiting.

[Steven F.Palter, MD @ Nov 21st 2006 12:03AM]

This technology is 100% coming to a bodt cavity inside you. I just gave a plenary session lecture at the 35th international gyn endoscopy congress on just this very topic. Endoscopic surgery is on the verge of a radical paradigm shift where traditional scopes are replaced by remote self-contained devices. The pill-cam was step one. Military and NASA technology is right now being ported to medical uses and prototypes are being developed for many fields.

I will posting my lecture streaming and a podcast in the next week or so on my medical technology blog. I just put up a summary of part one a series on the future transformation of surgery. This part deals with the introduction of "alternate visualization" whch is the idea of a machine providing abilities and senses beyond that of simple human abilities. The robots will be posted next.

http://docinthemachine.com/2006/11/17/futuresurgery-alternate-visualization-pt1/

[moondy @ Nov 21st 2006 2:55AM]

jmchez i second that, the only thing they can create are suicide bombs.