Robot operates on retina

A surgical robot has been successfully used for the first time to operate on a patient with retinal vein occlusion.

Controlled by eye surgeons at University Hospitals Leuven in Belgium, the robot uses a needle of barely 0.03mm to inject a thrombolytic drug into the retinal vein of the patient in order to safely dissolve the blood clot.

Eye surgeon at University Hospitals Leuven Professor Peter Stalmans said: ‘The robotic device enables us to treat the cause of the thrombosis in the retina for the first time. I am therefore looking forward to what is next: if we succeed, we will literally be able to make blind people see again.’