~RoBoTic SuRgErY~

In traditional surgical procedures, surgeons need to make large incisions in a patient's body in order to work on the affected internal organ. However robotic surgery has changed all that . Today robotic equipment is used for certain types of surgeries.It may be hard to believe but it is true.
 At one time , it was common to see heart surgeons involved in highly complex and special procedures. To reach the heart ,they have to make long incisions in the patient's chest area. Subsequently, they have to split the breastbone in order to get to the heart. These traditional procedures cause great trauma for the patients.They need to recover from the surgical treatments, the split bone and the wound created by the incision. Furthermore these invasive procedure leaves the patients prone to infection. As a result of the long cut in the skin , the patient is exposed to infection by bacteria . Besides the recovery period is often lengthy.
In recent years, a new surgical technique known as the keyhole surgery has come into prominence. This technique requires into a couple of small incisions,each measuring about one centimetre to be made around the area to be operated on. Long instruments  are inserted through these tiny incisions into the patient's body. At the end of these instruments are attached small tools that are similar to standard surgical equipment. Then an endoscope or a tiny camera is inserted through one of the incisions. This camera sends an image of what is going on inside the patient's body onto a large computer monitor. This enables the doctors to see what is happening and where to place or apply the surgical tools. The problem with the keyhole surgery is that it is counter intuitive . When a surgeon wants to move or shift the surgical tool to the right,the surgeon has to push it to the left and vice-versa.
A new robotic apparatus, the da Vinci Surgical System has been tested in hospitals in the United States . It requires the surgeons to make three small incisions in the body. Two of the slits are for the insertion of surgical tools. The third incision is for the endoscope . The robot's moving parts are built to mimic the natural hand and wrists movements of a surgeon. This provides stability ,better control and sensitivity. The surgeon can perform the operation sitting at a console a few feet away from the patient.. The surgeon does this by holding and moving sensitive pads that enable the surgeon to manipulate the instruments. The area of the body being operated on is magnified on a screen attached to the console. The surgeon gets a realistic three-dimensional view of the area , as seen in traditional  operation. The smaller incisions means less physical trauma to the body, and the patients will recover in a shorter time. In certain cases , the patient's duration of stay in the hospital had been reduced in half.
The only drawback is that some operations have taken fifty minutes longer due to the lack of experience of surgeons at using the new technology. When the surgeons become familiar with the machines and techniques ,the time required for surgical procedure will likely be reduced.