Robot stitches tissue by itself, a step to more automated OR

WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists have created a robot that stitched up tissue in living animals without a real doctor pulling the strings.

Today many hospitals offer robot-assisted surgery, where surgeons control the machines by hand. But much like engineers are designing self-driving cars, the hope is to create autonomous surgical robots that could perform certain jobs all by themselves, freeing surgeons for more complex tasks.

Wednesday, researchers at Children’s National Health System reported equipping a robotic arm with tools that let it track moveable tissue — pig intestines — and stitch it together.

Surgeons still had to supervise the robot, and it’s not ready for patient use yet. But in small animal tests, by some measures the robot performed a bit better than competing surgeons. The study is reported in Science Translational Medicine.