News - First zero-gravity human surgery

First zero-gravity human surgery

BBC News
Wednesday, 27 September 2006, 12:33 GMT 13:33 UK

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5383764.stm

A team of French doctors has been taking part in the first attempted
operation on a human under "weightless" conditions in an adapted
aircraft.

It is hoped the trial will be a first step to performing surgery in
space.

The doctors planned to remove a benign tumour from the arm of a
volunteer as their plane made a series of swoops to mimic a
reduced-gravity environment.

The surgeons were working strapped to the sides of the plane while the
patient was held inside a plastic tent.

Specially designed instruments were fitted with magnets to attach them
to the metal operating table.

Earthly spin-offs

The three-hour flight above south-west France used a modified Airbus
A300 known as "Zero-G", which flies parabolic curves that give its
passengers 20-second periods of weightlessness.

The patient was reportedly administered a local anaesthetic before
take-off at 0930 local time (0730 GMT).

French TV said that the operation took no more than 11 minutes, with 31
zero gravity sequences lasting 22 seconds each. The flight took just
over three hours.

It is not yet known whether the operation was successful.

Both patient and medical team were trained to cope with this free-fall
environment in machines similar to those used by astronauts.

"Since February we have been rehearsing this operation on the ground
and in the plane. It is all crystal clear in our heads," said chief
surgeon Dominique Martin, quoted by AFP news agency, before the flight
began.

It was the first time such an operation has been tried on a human
being.

Earlier this year, Mr Martin and his team mended a artery in a rat's
tail 0.5mm in diameter.

It is part of a long-term project to study the possibility of carrying
out surgery during long-distance space flights, using robots in the
spacecraft, guided by doctors on Earth via a satellite link.

Surgical team member Professor Pierre Vaida, from Bordeaux Hospital,
told the BBC: "The space station today is about 400km from the Earth,
so it's very easy to have an astronaut come back in an emergency (to
the) ground.

"When we are out of Earth's gravitational attraction, it takes several
days, at least, to come back. So it will be necessary to organise
tele-medicine and tele-surgery to be able to take care of astronaut
health."

The researchers say there could also be spin-offs for remote medicine
on Earth.

The equipment could be used for emergencies in confined locations such
as caves or in buildings toppled by earthquakes.

.

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