They operate, evaluate images, discover tumors: robots are taking over more and more tasks from doctors. What they can do and what people still need for. Episode 10 of the SZ-Arzt column “Clinically Seen”.
The robot leans over the patient’s stomach like an octopus: a shiny black box with fidgety gripping arms sticking out of it – sterilely packaged in transparent foil. The robot arms reach through small incisions in the skin into the abdominal cavity. The tool at the end of the arms is miniature in size: it moves with millimeter precision to remove the patient’s intestinal tumor. During this procedure, there is no surgeon at the operating table – but a machine.