‘Vicki’ robot used for first time in UAE

Doctors at Al Noor Hospital in Abu Dhabi are the first in the UAE to use the robotic arm known as "Vicki” to perform surgery. Vicki acts as an assistant to the surgeon and is guided by a voice tag mechanism during operations. During the surgery which lasted for 90 minutes, surgeons incised part of the stomach of a UAE national woman who suffered from obesity. Surgeon Dr Safwan Abdel Rahman Taha, Consultant of laparoscopic surgery and obesity and the medical director at the hospital, performed the operation with Vicki's support, helping the surgeon to direct an endoscopic camera inside the patient's abdomen to capture a clear image. Before Vicki, that was the task of an assistant surgeon. According to Dr Taha Ibrahim, director of Al Noor Hospital on Airport Road, the use of Vicki in surgeries is an advancement which primarily aims to improve the quality of services provided by the hospital surgical department. The success of the operation has opened the doors to use Vicki in other major surgeries in the future. Dr Safwan said the robot is usually programmed through a computer before the surgery to identify the voice tag of surgeon and as such will only respond to the surgeon's instructions during the operation. He added that the patient's weight amounted to 136 kilogrammes and such surgeries are effective in treating obesity, but only after taking into account the health status of the patient in addition to other factors. Source: The Gulf Today