The Lindbergh Operation, was named after American aviator Charles Lindbergh, because he was the first person to cross the

Atlantic by plane. The Lindbergh operation had nothing to do with planes but was the first transatlantic telesurgery.

Tele-surgery Performed by Surgeons in New York on a Patient in France

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Operation Lindbergh, a complete tele-surgical operation carried out by a team of French surgeons located in New York on a patient in Strasbourg, France, was a total success. This was the first time in medical history that a technical solution proved capable of reducing the time delay inherent to long distance transmissions, thus making this type of procedure possible. This operation, involving a minimal-invasive surgery, was performed using telecommunications solutions based on high-speed services and sophisticated surgical robotics.

On September 7th, 2001, working from New York, Professor Jacques Marescaux and his team from the IRCAD (Institute for Research into Cancer of the Digestive System) performed a successful operation on a patient located in Strasbourg, France.

The surgery, accomplished with the surgeons and patient separated by a distance of several thousand miles, was the result of a closely-coordinated partnership between IRCAD, the France Télécom group and Computer Motion, the world's leading developer of surgical robotic systems. This is the first time in the history of medicine that a technical solution has proved capable of reducing the time delays inherent to long-distance transmissions, thus making this type of procedure possible.

The 45-minute procedure consisted in removing the gallbladder of a patient in surgical ward A in Strasbourg Civil Hospital, in Eastern France. From New York, the surgeon controlled the arms of the ZEUS™ Robotic Surgical System, designed by Computer Motion, to operate on the patient. The link between the robotic system and the surgeon was provided by a high-speed fiberoptic service deployed thanks to the combined efforts of several France Telecom group entities.

Commenting on the operation, Professor Marescaux said: "I believe that this demonstration of the feasibility of a completely safe remotely performed surgical procedure — and notably the first trans-Atlantic operation — ushers in the third revolution we've seen in the field of surgery in the past ten years.

The first was the arrival of minimally invasive surgery, enabling procedures to be performed with guidance by a camera, meaning that the abdomen and thorax do not have to be opened. The second was the introduction of computer-assisted surgery, where artificial intelligence enhances the safety of the surgeon's movements during a procedure, rendering them more accurate, while introducing the concept of distance between the surgeon and the patient. It was thus a natural extrapolation to imagine that this distance — currently several meters in the operating room — could potentially be up to several thousand kilometers.

This is what we have just demonstrated thanks to the combined technical prowess of Computer Motion, which created the digital robot required, and France Telecom, which was able to deploy a broadband transmission service with optimized compression, thus limiting the time delay between the command of the action and its return on the monitor to a level that is virtually imperceptible to the human eye.

The demonstration of the feasibility of a trans-Atlantic procedure — dubbed 'Operation Lindbergh' is a richly symbolic milestone. It lays the foundations for the globalization of surgical procedures, making it possible to imagine that a surgeon could perform an operation on a patient anywhere in the world."

Project partners

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• IRCAD - Institute for Research into Cancer of the Digestive System
• EITS - Institute European Institute of Telesurgery
• France Telecom
• Computer Motion

Further informations

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Presentation, videos, photos, operative technique are available [http://www.websurg.com/event/Operation_Lindbergh/index.php here (on WeBSurg, World

Electronic Book of Surgery)] and here (IRCAD website).

References

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• Marescaux J, Leroy J, Rubino F, Vix M, Simone M, Mutter D. Transcontinental Robot Assisted Remote Telesurgery : Feasibility and Potential Applications.

Annals of Surgery 2002;235:487-92.

• Marescaux J. Nom de code : " Opération Lindbergh " - Ann Chir 2002;127:2-4.
• Marescaux J, et al. Transatlantic Robot-Assisted Telesurgery. Nature 2001;413:379-380.
• Marescaux J, Dutson E, Rubino F. The Impact of Robotics on General Surgery Training. Annals of Surgery 2002;235:446.

Surgery