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Dundee, Scotland/Jacksonville, Florida— In a groundbreaking demonstration of tele-robotic medicine, a team of surgeons from the University of Dundee in Scotland and the Baptist Health/Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Florida, US, have completed what is believed to be the world's first remote, robot-assisted mechanical thrombectomy on a human body.

The procedure, which involved using robotics to remove a blood clot following a stroke, was successfully carried out on human cadavers that were specially prepared for the experiment. This marks a critical step toward transforming emergency stroke care, particularly in areas lacking specialist stroke centres.

🌐 Transatlantic Procedure: 4,000 Miles Apart

The pioneering procedure involved two key stages:

1. Dundee Lead: Professor Iris Grunwald, a leading neuroradiologist at the University of Dundee and a global figure in stroke treatment, performed the initial remote thrombectomy on a human cadaver using the robotic system.

2. Transatlantic First: Hours later, Dr. Ricardo Hanel, a neurosurgeon based in Jacksonville, Florida, completed the first transatlantic surgery of its kind, controlling the robotic catheter to perform a thrombectomy on a human cadaver located in Dundee—a distance of over 4,000 miles (6,400km).

The remote surgeons were able to control the robotic arms and precisely maneuver the wires and catheters through the cadaver's blood vessels, replicating the movements typically performed by a surgeon standing at the patient's side. The delay, or lag, experienced during the transatlantic connection was reportedly just 120 milliseconds, described by the medical team as "truly remarkable."

⏰ A "Game Changer" for Time-Sensitive Stroke Care

The primary motivation behind developing this technology is the time-sensitive nature of stroke treatment. Every minute counts when treating an ischemic stroke (caused by a blood clot blocking blood flow to the brain).

• The Inequity: Currently, specialist stroke procedures like mechanical thrombectomy are only available in a few major centres in countries like the UK. Patients in rural areas often face significant delays in travel, which severely impacts their recovery.

• The Solution: The remote robotic system allows an expert surgeon to operate from anywhere in the world, dramatically reducing the time it takes for a patient to receive this life-saving procedure.

Professor Grunwald called the experiment a "first glimpse of the future," stating that the technology could "rebalance the inequity which exists in stroke treatment" and save valuable minutes where the brain is otherwise dying.

The team has successfully demonstrated that the full mechanical thrombectomy procedure is possible using a human cadaver model with circulating human blood—the most life-like simulation currently available—and now hopes to move into formal clinical trials on live patients next year.