Asia-Pacific region's first robotic facility for neurosurgery

Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi today claimed it has become the first healthcare facility in Asia-Pacific region to use robotic technology for neurosurgery, successfully conducting four surgeries for treatment of epilepsy this month.
The new generation robotic surgical technology - ROSA - will assist a broad range of surgical interventions to treat Parkinson and Epilepsy treatments, brain tumours, hemorrhagic strokes and endoscopic surgery of the brain, a press release said.
The robot is comparable to a "GPS" for the brain and can be used for guidance, precision and accuracy during a variety of cranial procedures. It requires surgical planning with preoperative imaging data, patient registration and precise positioning and handling of instrument.

To date, ROSA is the one of two robotic assistants approved for neurosurgical procedures and in routine clinical use in Europe, the United States, and Canada, the release said.
"Though robotics doesn't replace a surgeon's skill and cannot accomplish all neurosurgical tasks, it provides a precise, mathematically correct trajectory to the destination in the brain. In that trajectory, it will guide the surgeon's instruments for whatever be the purpose. Besides providing this precision and accuracy, it allows the surgeons to focus on other aspects of the surgery," said Dr Prem Nair, Medical Director of Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences said.

The Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences has already commissioned a da Vinci robotic technology for surgical solutions for Gynec-oncology, Urology and Gastrointestinal cases. Progressively, more robotic surgical machines will be inducted to set up India's first Centre for Excellence in Robotics in the healthcare sector at the Kochi facility of Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences.
The latest robotic surgical technology is designed and manufactured by Medtech Surgical of France and marketed worldwide by Schiller AG of Switzerland.
"The field of robotic neurosurgery is still in its early stage of development and we have been given the tasks of developing several of these applications. Medtech specifically has developed a robot for spine surgery and we have been given the task of helping expanding the applications of robotics in spine surgery," he said.