A remote, robot-assisted telesurgery has been carried out on a patient 2,400km away in Gibraltar in a UK first.
The prostatectomy – a removal of the prostate gland – was carried out in real time via telesurgery using the Toumai Robotic System. Professor Prokar Dasgupta used two screens during the procedure, which was carried out in London. One showed the surgical room in Gibraltar and the other showed the surgery itself taking place.
A secure, high-performance network infrastructure was used to provide the real-time connection needed to safely perform the surgery with a time lag of around 48 milliseconds. It also had an emergency back-up link that operated over 5G in the event of networking issues, and a medical team in Gibraltar also remained on standby.
The robot was equipped with a 3D camera that allowed the surgeon to accurately operate its four arms during the operation.
The patient, Paul Buxton, 62, moved to Gibraltar from the UK 40 years ago and was originally planning to travel...