A Chinese military study has found that robot-aided telesurgery is as reliable as conventional local surgery, offering a feasible solution for uneven medical services and rising cancer operations. As the first randomised controlled trial in telesurgery, it was published in the peer-reviewed journal The BMJ on Thursday.
The trial, conducted by researchers from the Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital, demonstrates that telesurgery's reliability is non-inferior to traditional surgery. The scientists wrote in the article: “As the first randomised controlled trial in the field of telesurgery, this study establishes that its reliability is non-inferior to that of conventional local surgery.” They added: “This finding provides a foundational evidence base for the design and implementation of larger-scale clinical trials in the future.”
Telesurgery allows a surgeon to operate on a patient remotely, providing care in distant locations like military settings, disaster zones, underserved areas, and space missions. The surgeon controls the procedure from a console with haptic controls and 3D visualisation. Their movements are digitised and transmitted via ultra-low-latency networks—such as dedicated optical fibre lines, 5G/6G wireless networks, or satellite connections—to a robotic system at the patient's side, which executes the actions.
The researchers described telesurgery as a “feasible” way to address the lack of medical services in parts of the country and the growing demand for cancer operations. Keywords suggest involvement in procedures like prostate cancer and kidney tumour surgeries across locations including Harbin, Hangzhou, Hefei, Beijing, and Urumqi, with a possible reference to Rome. This study lays groundwork for broader applications despite limited details in the available content.
