Experimental surgical robot performs gallbladder procedure autonomously
An experimental AI-guided robot can autonomously perform a delicate, complicated phase of a common gallbladder operation, marking a major step toward automated medical procedures, researchers said on Wednesday.
Existing surgical robots are remotely controlled by surgeons. The new system uses artificial intelligence to make independent decisions and adapts to unexpected complications during operations, said Axel Krieger of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who led the research.
He likened it to an autonomous vehicle that can “navigate any road, in any condition, responding intelligently to whatever it encounters.”
“This advancement moves us from robots that can execute specific surgical tasks to ones that truly understand surgical procedures,” he said.
The SRT-H robot was trained via an AI framework known as language-guided imitation learning, using videos of surgeons performing gallbladder removal surgeries on pig cadavers, the researchers reported in Science Robotics.
The robot was tested on eight varying sets of pig gallbladders and livers that had been removed from the animals.
Separating the gallbladder from the liver takes several minutes and involves “diverse tool use, including grabbing, clipping, and cutting – skills common in real surgical procedures,” along with decision-making and adaptation, the researchers said.
The pig organs and blood vessels in the tests varied widely in appearance and anatomy, “mirroring the diversity encountered in human surgeries,” they said.
While the robot achieved 100% accuracy in the surgeries, it took longer to perform the work than a human surgeon.
Commercially available surgical robots include Intuitive Surgical’s (ISRG.O), opens new tab da Vinci Surgical System, which has been used in over 12 million procedures globally since receiving FDA approval in 2000.
Unlike SRT-H, the da Vinci system relies entirely on human surgeons to control its movements remotely.
The global surgical robotics market is approaching $10 billion annually with about 2.7 million robotic procedures performed in 2024, Baird analyst David Rescott estimated.
Eventually, autonomous surgical robots could help address surgeon shortages, minimize human error, and provide consistent, high-quality care in underserved regions, the researchers said.
The research was supported by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health.
