World's first robotic eye surgery performed in Britain!

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: In a revolutionary move, doctors in Britain (UK) have successfully carried out the world's first robotic eye surgery.

The person who had to undergo the surgery is Father William Beaver, 70, an associate priest at St Mary the Virgin Church in Oxford, who said that his eyesight was returning following the pioneering procedure, iTV reported.

The priest had been complaining of distorted vision, which he said felt like “looking in a hall of mirrors at a fairground”.

The surgical procedure was completed at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, during which, Father Beaver said he “felt relaxed”.

This surgery has paved the way for further revolutionising the treatment for these kind of conditions.

Professor Robert MacLaren, one of the surgeons, said: "There is no doubt in my mind that we have just witnessed a vision of eye surgery in the future", reported the Daily Mail.

“Current technology with laser scanners and microscopes allows us to monitor retinal diseases at the microscopic level, but the things we see are beyond the physiological limit of what the human hand can operate on.

With a robotic system, we open up a whole new chapter of eye operations that currently cannot be performed.”

The Daily Mail further reported that, the surgeons used a joystick and touchscreen outside the eye to control the robot while monitoring its progress through the operating microscope. This gave medics a notable advantage as significant movements of the joystick resulted in tiny movements of the robot.

This is the first time a device has been available that achieves the three-dimensional precision required to operate inside the human eye.