<P> In September 2010, the first robotic operations with Hansen Medical's Magellan Robotic System at the femoral vasculature were performed at the University Medical Centre Ljubljana (UMC Ljubljana), Slovenia . The research was led by Borut Geršak, the head of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at the centre . Geršak explained that the robot used was the first true robot in the history of robotic surgery, meaning the user interface was not resembling surgical instruments and the robot was not simply imitating the movement of human hands but was guided by pressing buttons, just like one would play a video game . The robot was imported to Slovenia from the United States . </P> <P> As scientists seek to improve the versatility and utility of robotics in surgery, some are attempting to miniaturize the robots . For example, the University of Nebraska Medical Center has led a multi-campus effort to provide collaborative research on mini-robotics among surgeons, engineers and computer scientists . </P> <P> The first robot to assist in surgery was the Arthrobot, which was developed and used for the first time in Vancouver in 1983 . Intimately involved were biomedical engineer, Dr. James McEwen, Geof Auchinleck, a UBC engineering physics grad, and Dr. Brian Day as well as a team of engineering students . The robot was used in an orthopaedic surgical procedure on 12 March 1984, at the UBC Hospital in Vancouver . Over 60 arthroscopic surgical procedures were performed in the first 12 months, and a 1985 National Geographic video on industrial robots, The Robotics Revolution, featured the device . Other related robotic devices developed at the same time included a surgical scrub nurse robot, which handed operative instruments on voice command, and a medical laboratory robotic arm . A YouTube video entitled Arthrobot illustrates some of these in operation . </P> <P> In 1985 a robot, the Unimation Puma 200, was used to place a needle for a brain biopsy using CT guidance . In 1992, the PROBOT, developed at Imperial College London, was used to perform prostatic surgery by Dr. Senthil Nathan at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital, London . This was the first pure robotic surgery in the world . The PROBOT was specifically designed for transurethral resection of the prostate . Meanwhile, when PROBOT was being developed, ROBODOC, a robotic system designed to assist hip replacement surgeries was the first surgical robot that was approved by the FDA . The ROBODOC from Integrated Surgical Systems (working closely with IBM) was introduced in 1992 to mill out precise fittings in the femur for hip replacement . The purpose of the ROBODOC was to replace the previous method of carving out a femur for an implant, the use of a mallet and broach / rasp . </P>

When was the first robot used in surgery