Robot successfully performs keyhole surgery on pigs without human help

The robot surgeon will see you now. For years, the world of medicine has been steadily advancing the art of robot-assisted procedures, enabling doctors to enhance their technique inside the operating theatre. Now US researchers say a robot has successfully performed keyhole surgery on pigs all on its own – without the guiding hand of a human. Furthermore, they add, the robot surgeon produced "significantly better" results than humans. The breakthrough is another step towards the day when fully automated surgery can be performed on patients. The Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (Star) carried out laparoscopic surgery to connect two ends of an intestine in four pigs.