Telesurgery Procedure Passes Test

NEW YORK, Sept. 21 -- IRCAD/European Institute of Telesurgery, France Telecom and Computer Motion Inc. reported that on Sept. 7, a 68 year old woman in Strasbourg, France, became the first patient in history to receive a complete telesurgery procedure performed by surgeons nearly 4,000 miles away.

The procedure consisted of removing the gall bladder of the patient in France. From New York, the surgeons controlled a robotic system manufactured by Computer Motion, Inc, to operate on the patient. The link between the surgeons and the robotic system was an end-to-end high-speed fiber optic service provided by the France Telecom.

While some parts of this system are approved by the FDA for use on patients in the US in a nonremote scenario, the system used in this proof-of-concept has not been approved for commercial release by the FDA. This system has been CE-marked for commercial distribution in Europe.

The patient was released from the hospital approximately 48 hours after surgery and reported a return to normal activity the following week.