The idea may make you queasy but robotic surgery can provide greater accuracy and has more finesse, writes Eamon McGrane

Are you ready to be operated on by a robot? Well if you're going to be a patient of private hospital the Galway Clinic then you could find yourself under an automated knife.

The board of the Galway Clinic recently approved the purchase of a robotic arm, called DaVinci, from Intuitive Surgical.

According to Jimmy Sheehan, a director of the Blackrock, Galway and Hermitage clinics, the idea of operating using a robot was first conceived by Nasa to perform surgeries on astronauts who became ill in space.

A number of companies began to work on the project separately and finally came together under the name Intuitive. The first operation performed by robot was for cardiac surgery in 2001.

If you're feeling a little queasy that a relation of Metal Mickey could cut you open, then relax because the human element is still present. In fact a trained surgeon will be operating the robot remotely using an electronic glove that allows the robotic arm to follow the surgeon's hand movements.

The advantages of robotic surgery are manifold. Firstly it's minimally invasive so there's less blood and often no need for blood transfusions. In fact blood loss is usually 10 per cent of what would be lost in an open procedure.

Secondly, because the robot can magnify the field of vision by 14 times the surgery is more accurate and has more finesse. And in the case of a prostate removal there's less risk of incontinence and loss of sexual function. The length of hospital stay is also cut down in many cases by 70-80 per cent.

Sheehan says the robotic arm will be used mainly for urology cases. "We are in the unique position that we have two trained urologists in the Galway Clinic who have come back from Australia and have worked with robots for the last three years. It's not just a matter of buying a robot - the most important aspect is having trained operators and that's something you can't buy. So we're in the exclusive situation that the only two urologists in the country trained in robotic surgery have joined the staff of the Galway Clinic."

The hospital also has plans to use the arm for heart operations and has a cardiac doctor training abroad.

Sheehan says the main use in heart operations are single vessel bypass procedures on a closed chest.

"Usually you have to split the breastbone and open up the chest. With the robot you would do it keyhole-wide with a few small stab wounds, without opening the chest.

"The most interesting part is the robot performs the procedure on the beating heart without the patient being put on bypass. The reason you put someone on bypass is to stop the heart so it's not beating and the doctor can manually operate.

"With the robot arm you can time the insertion of your needles with the beat of the heart so it can operate accurately on the beating heart."

Sheehan says the machine will be installed, running and functioning, isix to eight weeks. At the moment the hospital has no operations booked for the device.

"Up to this point in time a number of Irish people have travelled abroad to have this surgery with the robot. Now they can have their surgery in Ireland. I think robotics will become a more frequent aspect of surgery in the future. However, it's all about controlled accuracy via the surgeon.

"They will still be an essential part of the operation as they are piloting the machine. The whole area brings up many possibilities in minimally invasive surgery so it will change a lot of things and we hope to have Galway become a centre of excellence and training for robotic controlled surgery."