Robotic drill to reduce surgery time from hours to minutes

​Washington: Use of an automated, robotic drill for future surgeries could reduce the procedure from two hours to two and a half minutes.

The new machine can make one type of complex cranial surgery 50 times faster than standard procedures.

Researchers at the University of Utah developed the drill that produces fast, clean, and safe cuts, reducing the time the wound is open and the patient is anesthetized, thereby decreasing the incidence of infection, human error, and surgical cost.

The findings were reported online in Neurosurgical Focus.

To perform complex surgeries, especially cranial surgeries, surgeons typically use hand drills to make intricate openings, adding hours to a procedure.

The drill does the heavy lifting by removing most of the bone, similar to a mill, accurately and rapidly.

The device also has an automatic emergency shut-off switch. During surgery, the facial nerve is monitored for any signs of irritation.

"If the drill gets too close to the facial nerve and irritation is monitored, the drill automatically turns off," said Couldwell led an interdisciplinary team at the U to bring the drill into reality.

The shorter surgery is expected to lower the chance of infection and improve post-operative recovery. It also has potential to substantially reduce the cost of surgery, because it shaves hours from operating room time.

Couldwell and his team are examining opportunities to commercialize the drill to ensure that it is more widely available for other surgical procedures.