New surgical robot gives doctors ‘superhuman’ precision

What looks like a video game is one of the most delicate surgeries a doctor can perform.

“It’s really a race against the clock, and it’s very tight and complex anatomy as well,” said Doctor Victor Chien, a plastic surgeon at Cedars Sinani specializing in facial and neck reconstructive surgery, especially after cancer.

He’s demoing microsurgery to me – this is highly intricate surgery that typically involves blood vessels thinner than a human hair.

“This robot and the three-dimensional aspect of the visualization allows us to add efficiency and precision to these very difficult cases,” said Dr. Chien.

Dr. Chien recently performed the first FDA robot-assisted microsurgery for head and neck cancer.

The Symani Surgical System is remote-controlled. Doctors sit in a unique chair with hand controllers and use a 3D screen to guide the procedure.

The system helps in two ways. First, it magnifies the area doctors are operating on, making delicate procedures easier to perform. It also reduces natural tremors in the hand.

“It’s going to open up a whole new avenue of treatments for patients for diseases we never even considered treating,” said Dr. Curtis L. Cetrulo, director of the Division of Plastic Surgery at Cedars-Sinai.

Cetrulo advocated for getting the system at the medical center and calls the first procedure a “100 percent success.”

The system is currently approved for head and neck microsurgery, but it could expand to procedures inside the brain, abdomen, and chest in the future.

“These tools allow us to use our mastery in a level of precision and a level of dedication that was not previously possible,” concluded Chien.