Telesurgery

Surgical procedures carried out at a distance thanks to advances in robotic and computer technology and their applications to surgery.

The first demonstration of trans-Atlantic telesurgery was reported in 2001 when surgeons in New York operated on a 68-year-old woman in Strasbourg, France and used remote-controlled robots to resect (took out) her gall bladder by laparoscopy.

Remote telesurgery transcends all of the geographical constraints on specialized surgery.

A person at the South Pole needing surgery can have it there by remote telesurgery ('polar telesurgery').

An astronaut can be operated upon in a space station ('astrosurgery').

And people in developing nations will be able to benefit from specialized surgery and not leave home for it.