Medical Milestone: Swiss Expert Performs Groundbreaking Endoscopy on Pig in China Using Robotic Technology

A pig became part of a medical breakthrough after an expert sitting in a lab 9,300 kilometers (5,779 miles) away operated on it remotely. This endoscopy was facilitated by the combined efforts of researchers at ETH Zurich and The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and took place in Hong Kong, China, IFL Science reported. This collaborative project involved endoscopy using robotic tools, and the procedure details have been published in the journal Advanced Intelligent Systems.

The surgery is considered a huge step towards making telesurgery a standard option for people, as per IFL Science. During the COVID pandemic, patients and doctors both understood the need for a medium to stay connected over long distances. Even if communication was not an issue, conducting procedures proved to be a hassle when both parties were at a distance from each other. This technology can ensure access for patients to the world's best doctors, irrespective of their location.

Endoscopy involves the insertion of a long flexible tube with a camera inside the human body through an incision, with the objective of a diagnosis and sometimes treating a particular condition, the Mayo Clinic reported. The doctors capture images of organs within the body through the camera and use them to decide the course of treatment.

In Hong Kong, a team of surgeons inserted the endoscope safely through the mouth and into the stomach of the pig, IFL Science reported. The endoscope used in the process was specially designed by the team at ETH Zurich so that it could navigate via a magnetic field.

Doctoral student Alexandre Mesot utilized the joysticks of a PlayStation controller and a strong internet connection to move the endoscope inside the pig's stomach, according to IFL Science. Before the medical procedure, the pig had been given anesthesia so that it remained unconscious throughout the process.

Mesot was conducting the whole operation while sitting in a lab in Zurich, Switzerland, IFL Science reported. He was deciding his movements based on the images of the stomach that were appearing on his screen with only a 300-millisecond delay.

Mesot claimed that the endoscope was easy to control and was efficient, IFL reported. “Not only can the endoscope be bent in any direction thanks to its magnetic head; it’s also smaller and easier to maneuver than conventional devices,” he said in a statement. A tiny gripper attached to the endoscope helped Mesot collect samples from the wall of the pig's stomach without any harm to the animal.

The endoscope size was smaller than the ones currently used by doctors for human procedures, IFL Science reported. Researchers therefore want to insert this particular endoscope through the nose rather than the mouth in the case of humans. They claim that this will be more comfortable for patients and will remove the requirement of heavy sedation. 

Researchers of ETH Zurich and The Chinese University of Hong Kong are now looking forward to conducting this procedure on humans, IFL Science reported. “In the next step of our research, we hope to carry out a teleoperated endoscopy on a human stomach,” said Professor Bradley Nelson of the Multi-Scale Robotics Lab at ETH Zurich. “There’s a lot of potential in this technology. Here I’m thinking of minimally invasive procedures in the gastrointestinal tract, such as cancer screening.”