ArticleNature biomedical engineering2018
First-in-human study of the safety and viability of intraocular robotic surgery.
Article in Nature biomedical engineering, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 95 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
95 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 209 citations in OpenAlex.
- Robot-Assisted Eye Surgery: A Systematic Review of Effectiveness, Safety, and Practicality in Clinical Settings.Translational vision science & technology · 2024Pooled it
- Clinical applications for intraoperative optical coherence tomography: a systematic review.Eye (London, England) · 2022Pooled it
- ROBOT-ASSISTED VITREORETINAL SURGERY IMPROVES SURGICAL ACCURACY COMPARED WITH MANUAL SURGERY: A Randomized Trial in a Simulated Setting.Retina (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2020Trial
- Fast robot-to-iOCT calibration using conical geometry and 2D cross-scan OCT.Journal of biomedical optics · 2026Article
- Ultra-Long-Distance Robotic-Assisted Subretinal Injection for Submacular Hemorrhage.JAMA ophthalmology · 2026Article
- Comparative evaluation of robotic surgical systems in oculoplastic surgery: A study of Da Vinci versus medtronic hugo RAS in standardized eyelid incisions.Indian journal of ophthalmology · 2026Article
- Robot-assisted ophthalmic surgery: research trends, collaboration networks, and emerging clinical frontiers.Journal of robotic surgery · 2026Review
- Research trends and hotspots in robot-assisted ophthalmic surgery: a bibliometric and visualization study.Journal of robotic surgery · 2026Review
- Global research trends in robot-assisted vitreoretinal surgery: a visualized bibliometric analysis.Journal of robotic surgery · 2026Review
- Hybrid Parallel-Serial Tool Exchange Robot for Ophthalmic Precision Surgery: Mechanical Design.The international journal of medical robotics + computer assisted surgery : MRCAS · 2026Article
- Toward autonomous robotic-assisted and microrobotic surgery.Science advances · 2026Review
- Cell therapy for age-related macular degeneration.Mammalian genome : official journal of the International Mammalian Genome Society · 2026Review
- Robot-Assisted Peripheral Retinal Visualization during Vitrectomy without Scleral Depression: A First-In-Human Comparative Study.Ophthalmology science · 2026Article
- Technical advances in robotic retinal surgery: a systematic review and future research directions.Journal of robotic surgery · 2026Review
- The Impact of Vitreoretinal Surgery in Patients with Uveitis: Current Strategies and Emerging Perspectives.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Development of Teleoperated Robotic System for Remote Intraocular Microsurgery.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Control Modes of Teleoperated Surgical Robotic System's Tools in Ophthalmic Surgery.IEEE transactions on medical robotics and bionics · 2025Article
- Current status and solutions for AI ethics in ophthalmology: a bibliometric analysis.NPJ digital medicine · 2025Article
- Magnification-Invariant Retinal Distance Estimation for Vitreoretinal Surgery Using a Laser Aiming Beam.The international journal of medical robotics + computer assisted surgery : MRCAS · 2025Article
- A soft micron accuracy robot design and clinical validation for retinal surgery.Microsystems & nanoengineering · 2025Article
35 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Microsurgery of the retina would be dramatically improved by instruments that offer supra-human precision. Here, we report the results of a first-in-human study of remotely controlled robot-assisted retinal surgery performed through a telemanipulation device. Specifically, 12 patients requiring dissection of the epiretinal or inner limiting membrane over the macula were randomly assigned to either undergo robot-assisted-surgery or manual surgery, under general anaesthesia. We evaluated surgical success, duration of surgery and amount of retinal microtrauma as a proxy for safety. Surgical outcomes were equally successful in the robotic-surgery and manual-surgery groups. Differences in the amount of retinal microtrauma between the two groups were statistically insignificant, yet dissection took longer with robotic surgery (median time, 4 min 5 s) than with manual surgery (1 min 20 s). We also show the feasibility of using the robot to inject recombinant tissue plasminogen activator under the retina to displace sight-threatening haemorrhage in three patients under local anaesthesia. A safe and viable robotic system for intraocular surgery would enable precise and minimally traumatic delivery of gene therapy or cell therapy to the retina.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.