Doctors performed the first simulation of surgery in space

The first orbital surgery in history was performed. From Earth, a small robot aboard the International Space Station (ISS) was used by surgeons to operate on rubbery tissue, NASA reported.

More specifically, a robot called SpaceMIRA – equipped with two arms and a camera – was developed by the company Virtual Incision (VIC) and the University of Nebraska. It left for the ISS at the end of January, and upon arrival, it was installed by NASA astronaut Laurel O'Hara, who will remain in space until September 2023.

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The surgery was performed last Saturday, February 10th, from the Virtual Incision headquarters in Lincoln, Nebraska. It lasted two hours, during which six surgeons took turns developing techniques to treat patients on Earth. “The experiment tested standard surgical techniques such as scraping, manipulating and cutting tissue with rubber bands,” Virtual Incision said in a statement.

Also, in a video shared by the company, one hand equipped with tweezers can be seen picking up and stretching a rubber band, while another hand equipped with scissors cuts as if making an amputation.

According to NASA, the only inconvenience was a delay of 0.85 seconds between the operations center on Earth and the ISS. According to Michael Jobst, one of the doctors who participated in the operation, time is of the essence for the surgeons, because, in his words, curing a potential hemorrhage can mean life and death in a matter of seconds.

However, when the experiment was completed, it was described as a “huge success” because it was a step toward the development of space surgery, which would be key to medical emergencies during future human missions that hope to land on the Moon and Mars.

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NASA confirmed that the same test would be performed by the same surgeons on Earth, to review the procedure in more detail as technology allowed more time for spaceflight, increasing the need to be prepared for emergencies.

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