A robot created by American scientists was able to perform the first laparoscopic surgery without human intervention and achieved better results than doctors in the same procedure.

According to Axel Krieger, professor of mechanical engineering at Johns Hopkins University School of Engineering, quoted by Lusa, the experiment conducted on pigs showed that it is possible to automate one of the most delicate and complex surgical tasks such as reconnecting two ends of a bowel.

Axel Krieger pointed out that the operation, called anastomosis, is performed through small incisions in the intestinal abdomen and requires a high level of precision as well as repetitive movements, without the shaking of hands or misplaced sutures, which can lead to leakage at the tissue junction with catastrophic consequences for patients.

The robot, named STAR, was created with the help of researchers at the US National Children's Hospital and uses a vision-guided system generated specifically for suturing soft tissue. It is a model improved on another robot that in 2016 successfully operated on a pig's intestine, but with the need for a large incision and human guidance.

"Soft tissue interventions are especially difficult for devices to do because of the unpredictability, which forces them to have to adapt their actions in the face of unexpected obstacles, but STAR has a control system that allows it to adjust the plan of surgery in real time, just as a human would," Krieger explained.

He added that robotic anastomosis is one way to ensure that surgical tasks requiring high precision and repeatability can be performed more accurately in all patients, regardless of the skill of the surgeon.

"The result of the project will be a democratization of patient care and more predictable and consistent gains," he pointed out.