French and American doctors have done an operation (手术) together in which the doctors were outside the operating room. This kind of operation is known as robotic operation.
Doctor Marescaux did the operation in an office in New York City last month, while a sixty-eight-year-old woman patient was in a hospital in Strasbourg, France.
A doctor in Strasbourg got the patient ready. He placed medical tools and a small video camera in her stomach area. Doctor Marescaux in New York watched the patient on a video screen. Then he used the computer to send messages to the robot machine.
The robot moved the tools that cut the woman's gallbladder (胆囊) away. The woman got well soon after the operation and left the hospital two days later.
Experts say the main problem with such a robotic operation is based on high-speed telecommunications (通讯系统) between the doctor and the robot. Technology must be able to send a doctor's order to a robot to move the tool quickly.
Experts also say a successful robotic operation will improve an operation. For example, the robot can make such smaller movements than a person can. A robot machine can turn tools in ways that a doctor's hand cannot.
Doctors say such a robotic operation will make possible safer and better operations in the future. They say it will improve doctor training. It will also mean that doctors could do an operation on people in dangerous places far away. And it could mean that people could have operations done by top doctors without having to travel to the city where the doctors work.
