A robot-crab stomach cancer
As they have labeled him a miniature robot crab could become one of the most powerful machines in the fight against stomach cancer. The university hospital in Singapore has developed with the Institute of Engineering Nanyang this device can perform surgery on stomach cancers without scarring .
This robotic crab lay at the tip of an endoscope. Equipped with a clip like the crab, the machine would be able to perform operations on the bowel entering the mouth, operating without having to “open” to the patient.
Once inside the body and with the help of a small camera attached to the endoscope , the robot has a clamp to hold the cancerous tissues. Beside the clip the machine has a cutting hook.
The small camera to help surgeons see what’s inside the intestine and thus control the “arms” of the robot remotely from the monitor screen. According to Professor Lawrence Ho, who helped design the peculiar robot:
Our movements are very large and if we want to make very fine movements, our hands tremble … however, robots can perform very fine movements without trembling.
Ho has the robot has already been tested successfully in five patients in India and Hong Kong. All cases of cancers in the stomach early, at a time when they would open types of surgery with risks of infection or scarring.
Stomach cancer is the second leading cause of death by disease worldwide and is particularly common in Asia. The diagnosis of gastric cancer usually occurs at a late stage of the disease, when treatment is difficult.
They have the curious researchers of the invention that was developed after a seafood dinner in Singapore in 2004. After a plate of crabs came up with the possibility of implementing their characteristics in the surgery of this type of cancer. Ho said:
We suggest using the crab as a prototype. The crab can pick up sand and their claws are very strong. Throughout history we see how many things have developed or adapted to other functions … so we created something that would work in human anatomy by taking an idea borrowed from nature itself.
Breakthrough that we hope to serve in the fight against this scourge of society that is cancer. Researchers have created a company around the invention and hope that the robot is available for sale on the market in three years.