Ubiquitous in science fiction and fantasy is medical technology where machines precisely repair wounds and other injuries to humans. While science fiction like Star Trek inspired many technologies, like flip phones and tablet computers, the current standard of robot-assisted surgeries is not especially impressive. Today’s robot-assisted surgery depends entirely on the individual surgeon’s capability to manually maneuver a robot, which is capable of using smaller instruments, theoretically making surgery less invasive. However, autonomous robotic surgery—removing the surgeon’s hands—is still the stuff of science fiction…until now.

Surgeons and scientists at Children’s National Health System recently demonstrated that autonomous robotic soft tissue surgery on a live subject is not only possible, but that the autonomous robot outperforms a skilled surgeon’s hands.

This study describes results of the Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR) surgeries on soft tissue conducted on living pigs. The STAR robot was able to suture and join intestines (intestinal anastomosis). The technology removes the surgeon’s hands from the procedure, and instead utilizes the surgeon solely as supervisor. The suturing is both autonomously planned and performed by the STAR robot. The study can be obtained here:

[Supervised autonomous robotic soft tissue surgery](http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/8/337/337ra64)

This technology is truly revolutionary. Removing a surgeon’s hands has the potential to be more efficient, safe, and improved access to care. Since more than 44.5 million soft tissue surgeries are performed in the U.S. each year, this technology could have a huge impact on healthcare.

However, the possibility continues to exist that patients will receive substandard care, even from a robot. Issues such as determining whether a patient may safely undergo robotic surgery, what happens when there is an expected occurrence during surgery, and whether the robot is supervised during the surgery will need to be continually addressed so that patients remain safe from avoidable harm.