Surgery of the Future
Surgery today is faster, less invasive, and more effective than ever – thanks partly to medical imaging technology. Imaging lets physicians understand the patient's condition better, plan treatment more efficiently, and deliver therapy more precisely. But medical imaging offers an even less-invasive future.
- Surgery without the incision: Researchers are testing high-intensity ultrasound to blast pre-cancerous breast lesions and fibroid tumors – without making a single incision. While a patient lies inside a magnetic resonance imaging scanner, a beam of ultrasound penetrates the skin to eradicate tumors. One day, the technology could replace hysterectomies and mastectomies and might be used for brain tumors.
- One-stop cancer care: Imaging experts foresee a future in which all surgical biopsies are replaced by non-invasive imaging. Imaging systems could identify a "signature analysis of tissue" and determine whether or not it is cancerous. If so, imaging could then unleash energy or sound beams directly onto the spot, eradicating the disease immediately. One possibility: treatment at the doctor's office, and no more need for operating rooms.1
- Greater surgical precision with robotics: One day patients may be all alone in the operating room – providing a germ-free environment for surgery. Patients will be operated on remotely using robotic arms inside an advanced MRI machine that updates the image every second or less, allowing surgeons to view their progress in real time on a video monitor. Computers will provide surgeons with the exact coordinates of tissue to be repaired. The patient's surgery can be shared with specialists miles away or beamed into a medical school lecture at a distant university thanks to telemedicine capabilities.2
1 "Bloodless Revolution: Twenty-First-Century Surgery," Harbour Fraser Hodder, Harvard Magazine, November-December, 2000.
2 Ibid.
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