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back to article Boffins bring home the bacon as AI-powered robo-medic performs heart surgery on pigs

AI-trained autonomous robots have helped surgeons perform heart surgery on live pigs, according to research published in Science Robotics. A team of researchers from Boston Children’s Hospital in USA, Université de Strasbourg in France, and Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan, have built a robot to perform heart surgery …

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  1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

    So...

    what are the ethics on eating your experimental subjects?

    Mmm... bacon...

    12 0 Reply
    1. JetSetJim
      Reply Icon
      Pint

      Re: So...

      > No pigs were harmed

      and

      > The robotic catheter managed to navigate to the right position 79 times out of the 83 trials carried on five pigs

      In the 4 that failed, what was the clinical outcome?

      Very interesting, though, and I'm sure a fleshy human would find it hard to have that success rate on a beating heart

      1 0 Reply
      1. The Mole
        Reply Icon

        Re: So...

        I was more wondering how it is compatible with the statement "They introduced weaknesses into the five porky patients' hearts,". Perhaps stabbing the pigs in the heart* happened before the operation - but that surely is worse than doing it whilst under aneasthetic.

        Corresponding numbers for a human surgeon would be interesting.

        I'm assuming in the other 4 cases the robot reached some sort of dead end and the human took over?

        * OK I'm sure they'd try putting it in a more medical way and perhaps it wasn't quite literally like that..

        2 0 Reply
        1. Evil Auditor Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          Re: So...

          I'm assuming in the other 4 cases the robot reached some sort of dead end and the human took over?

          Yep. They called the butcher.

          0 0 Reply
      2. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Facepalm

        "No pigs were harmed" but they were all sent on to pig heaven

        Call me crazy, but I consider being killed - no matter how nicely - as harm! Not that I have an ethical issue with this, but maybe the proper phrase should be "no pigs were made to suffer"...

        2 0 Reply
  2. UKHobo

    Sow...

    a treatment finished off with a quality oinkment? hogwash

    2 0 Reply
  3. BebopWeBop
    Happy

    The thin tube has to navigate through the intricate walls of the muscle to reach the aortic annulus, a small squishy ring that acts as an opening to the aortic valve

    Ahh making the technical terms accessible to us non mediacs

    3 0 Reply
  4. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Kudos to that effort

    Well done and congratulations.

    That said, I hope they'll have a 100% efficient version before I need it, and I hope even more that I'll never need it.

    4 0 Reply
    1. ThatOne Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Coat

      Re: Kudos to that effort

      I'd rather worry about getting eaten after the operation.

      6 0 Reply
  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The real question...

    Does this open up the possibility for self-harvesting, renewable bacon?

    Now there's a solution to global warming. Unless global warming could be harnessed for cooking the bacon too...

    2 0 Reply

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