A robot saved a 61-year-old man's life by removing a cancerous tumor from his throat in a first of its kind operation in the U.K. Surgeons at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital used a next-generation robot called Versius to perform the esophagectomy to remove a 2.3-inch tumor from a patient named Martin Nugent. The procedure performed by the robot was a form of minimal access surgery, which creates smaller incisions and reduces the change of complications, scarring and post-operation pain. 'To have been given a second chance to see my grandchildren, my children and my wife has meant so much to me. The team at the GRH saved my life and I'll be forever grateful to them for doing so,' Nugent said. A robot saved a 61-year-old man's life by removing a cancerous tumor from his throat in a first of its kind operation in the U.K. ABOVE: A picture from a different operation using CMR Surgical's Versius robot Surgeons at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital used a next-generation robot called Versius to perform the esophagectomy to remove a 2.3-inch tumor from a patient named Martin Nugent. 'The suite of fully-wristed instruments, combined with enhanced 3D HD vision, give surgeons a high level of accuracy when performing complicated procedural steps or operating in hard to reach areas,' CMR Surgical, the company responsible for robot, says on its website The delicate effort, which involved raising Nugent's stomach and reconnecting it to his esophagus, is credited with giving him a chance to have experiences he didn't think would be possible.

In the COVOD-19 era, when carrying out surgeries has become difficult, Robotic Surgery can provide minimally invasive procedures to patients, while providing greater protection to the doctors and other healthcare professionals, when compared to manual surgical procedures. An estimated number of 313 million people all over the world undergo surgery everywhere. With the looming COVID-19 crisis, the health of these patients has been compromised. Currently, Robotic technology comes as a solution to the surgical challenges. Dr. Ramakant Panda from the Asian Heart Institute, Mumbai, one of just a few centres in India offering patients surgical robotic procedures has commented, "Patient safety is our key priority and with COVID-19 we need to make sure we can conduct surgery in the best way possible for patients. We believe that surgical robotics offers this enhanced safety for patients. With physical distancing maintained while the surgeon sits at the console, this has the potential to reduce the likelihood of the patient or surgical team catching COVID-19. We are happy we will be offering surgery using Versius, a surgical robot. Robotic surgery can enhance surgery and help patients in the COVID era, as well as has the potential to support surgery during future pandemics. When conducting manual minimally invasive techniques, the surgeon is within very close proximity of the patient with more of the surgical team in the operating room, so this considerably increases the risk of contracting the infection and infecting the patient. In robotic surgery, the surgeon is more than 6 feet away while also reducing the number of people in the operating room."

A Cambridge-based company that has developed what it calls the "next generation" of robot surgeons has raised £195m ($240m) to fund its global expansion. CMR Surgical, which is one of the UK's fastest-growing firms, says it wants to bring minimally invasive or keyhole surgery to patients around the world. The series C funding round -- the third time it has raised major outside investment -- is Europe's largest-ever private financing round in the medical technology sector, the company said on Tuesday. CMR Surgical's product, known as Versius, mimics the human arm, making it easier for surgeons to be more precise. Because the product is versatile and affordable, the company says, it can be used across "a broad range" of minimal access surgeries, which are associated with less pain, shorter hospital stays, and far fewer complications.

A patient has become the first in Britain to be operated on for major cancer surgery by a robot. Dean Walter, 41, had a full pelvic extraction in which his bladder, prostate, rectum and lower colon were removed through a cut in his abdomen only 2in wide. The operation usually requires a surgeon and three assistants to cut the patient open from their chest to their groin. Mr Walter, a former fitness model, would have needed three weeks in hospital to recover from traditional surgery – but he was ready to go home eight days after the robotic procedure for rectal cancer. It was done using a £2million Da Vinci Xi robot, which has four arms for cutting tissue, sealing blood vessels and filming inside the body with a 3D camera.

A new robot with flexible joints like a human will be used by the NHS next year to operate on patients. Known as Versius, it is a third of the size of robots already used by hospitals, such as the da Vinci Xi system. Experts say this should allow it to perform a wider range of delicate procedures via keyhole surgery, such as hernia repairs. Each of the robot's four arms has fully-rotating wrists, controlled by a surgeon sitting at a console with two video game-like joysticks and a 3D screen. This gives surgeons increased dexterity and a magnified view, which is thought to reduce pain and boost recovery times among patients.

By the end of 2018, surgeons in the United Kingdom could have a new assistant in the operating room: Versius, the world's smallest surgical robot. Created by CMR Surgical, the bot is essentially three robotic arms attached to a mobile unit about the size of a barstool, according to a recent report by The Guardian. A surgeon controls the bot from a control panel, guiding the arms as they carry out keyhole procedures (surgeries performed through tiny incisions in the body -- much less invasive than open surgeries, which require much larger incisions). CMR Surgical is in the process of getting Versius approved by UK regulators so that it can move out of the training room and into the operating room. The company hopes to pass this regulatory hurdle before the end of this year.

It is the most exacting of surgical skills: tying a knot deep inside a patient's abdomen, pivoting long graspers through keyhole incisions with no direct view of the thread. Trainee surgeons typically require 60 to 80 hours of practice, but in a mock-up operating theatre outside Cambridge, a non-medic with just a few hours of experience is expertly wielding a hook-shaped needle – in this case stitching a square of pink sponge rather than an artery or appendix. The feat is performed with the assistance of Versius, the world's smallest surgical robot, which could be used in NHS operating theatres for the first time later this year if approved for clinical use. Versius is one of a handful of advanced surgical robots that are predicted to transform the way operations are performed by allowing tens or hundreds of thousands more surgeries each year to be carried out as keyhole procedures. "The vast majority of patients, despite all the advantages of minimal-access surgery, are still getting open surgery, because so few surgeons have the skills," said Mark Slack, head of gynaecology at Addenbrooke's hospital, Cambridge, and co-founder of CMR Surgical, the company behind Versius.

British scientists have developed the world's smallest surgical robot which could transform everyday operations for tens of thousands of patients. From a converted pig shed in the Cambridgeshire countryside, a team of 100 scientists and engineers have used low-cost technology originally developed for mobile phones and space industries to create the first robotic arm specifically designed to carry out keyhole surgery. The robot, called Versius, mimics the human arm and can be used to carry out a wide range of laparoscopic procedures – including hernia repairs, colorectal operations, and prostate and ear, nose and throat surgery – in which a series of small incisions are made to circumvent the need for traditional open surgery. This reduces complications and pain after surgery and speeds up recovery times for patients. The robot is controlled by a surgeon at a console guided by a 3D screen in the operating theatre.

A British company hopes to revolutionise keyhole surgery – with a robot a third the size of existing devices. Cambridge Medical Robotics claim that their robot arm, which is controlled by a surgeon, will be suitable for use in delicate keyhole surgical operations. Called Versius, it will be able to carry out hernia repairs, colorectal operations, prostate surgery and ear nose and throat surgery. Widely-used existing robots are around three times bigger than Versius. But CMR believe their'Versius' machine will be more useful to surgeons as they will be smaller and cheaper.