
Surgical snakebot slithers around your heart, carries its own scalpel - evo_9
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/130033-surgical-snakebot-slithers-around-your-heart-carries-its-own-scalpel-and-forceps
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ChuckMcM
Ok there is some irony in the huge investments in robots that blow people up
and robots that fix them up. A friend of mind is at Intuitive Surgical (makes
the Davinci robot) and they are unable to keep up with demand.

That said, this is such a good use of technology. It is so stupid to
disassemble someone so that the big hands of a surgeon and maybe a couple of
nurses can get in there to work, when the thing being worked on may be quite
small. The snake aspect of it is pretty cool because it leverages the fact
that you need to have cable back to the power source etc, and you can use all
of that volume for useful stuff rather (motion control) rather than wasting
it. I expect these will be 1/3 this thickness within the decade though.

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ctdonath
Consider that the alternative is splitting your ribcage and prying it open
with a car jack.

Been there.

Done that.

Not fun.

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jlgreco
Eeg, I never thought of it like that. Where does the flex come from, general
springiness of the ribs or do they force then to hinge at the spine?

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ctdonath
Considering my entire ribcage hurt for days after, I assume "general
springiness".

(ETA: By "hurt" I mean "OMG painkillers NOW". For a week.)

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markyc
hard to believe they can't make the thing much thinner

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tomjen3
I understand that this is far better than what has previously been available.

But damn, why must medicine be so creepy?

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icegreentea
I think the craziest part about this is that the snake attaches itself to the
outside of your beating heart, and then does it stuff. A kind of elegant, but
also creepy solution to operating on a beating heart. I remember reading about
the Raven surgical robot (not a snake, or really a raven... but still a
surgical robot) that had a module for compensating for the beating heart under
development. Like, they would try to move the robot arms in sync with the
heart to remove relative motion. NUTS!

