A 24-hour robo-surgery event was on this week, featuring micro-operations broadcast live on the internet.

The Worldwide Robotic Surgery 24 Hour Event began in the early hours of Monday morning, Australian time, bringing surgeons and other experts together from a range of institutions on 4 continents .

A group of ten surgeons, each chosen for their contribution to the development and advancement of robotic-assisted surgery, talked through the details and methods of an operation in rolling coverage of procedures.

Robotic-assisted surgery involves tiny instruments and miniscule incisions, with the surgeon sitting at a console and working with live 3D images of the patient's organs.

They can use both hand and foot controls to manipulate a camera system and miniature operating instruments inside the body.

Australia’s Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre Associate Professor Declan Murphy performed a robot-assisted radical prostatectomy as part of the event.

While live-streaming of surgery is becoming quite common, WRSE24 is the first fully internet-based conference, made more unique by the fact it is open for public viewing.

Microsurgeries accessible for online viewing include:

  • Totally intracorporeal robot-assisted radical cystectomy with a neobladder;
  • Several robot-assisted radical prostatectomies, including a Retzius space-preserving example and one with a neobladder;
  • A robot-assisted partial nephrectomy (with firefly technology), and a demonstration of zero-ischaemia RAPN;
  • Robotic renal transplantation;
  • and to close the show – a totally intracorporeal RARC with ileal conduit diversion

Audience members posed questions to the medical experts using the Twitter hashtag #WRSE24.