Cutting someone open to save them is a double-edged sword. This is because of the stress that such an operation could have on the body, which is why robotic surgery is becoming an increasingly popular choice as it can help with minimally invasive surgery thanks to its parts being relatively small, at least compared to our hands and fingers.
However, if there is one thing that robot surgeons still can’t do well it would be to deal with internal injuries and patching up internal wounds, but that’s something that researchers at MIT are trying to solve. They have since created a medical patch that has an origami-like shape that’s designed to be folded around existing robotic surgery tools.
This means that surgeons and hospitals will not need to purchase additional specialized equipment to use them as they are designed to work with existing ones. These patches have also been designed to better fuse with the body. This is thanks to the three-layer design which uses a hydrogel-based adhesive, a silicone oil-coated surface, and an elastomer outer layer that helps protect the patch from bacteria, which could cause complications over time.
The researchers are hoping to collaborate with robotic surgery platforms in the future, and they also envision how companies could use this concept and sell prefolded patches that could fit onto existing tools. It might be a while before we see it being used, but it’s an interesting concept.