Robot Surgery

The use of robots in surgery has been known for decades. However, all of these robots seemed to me to be appropriate for macroscopic surgery–primarily abdominal surgery. In ophthalmology, we literally do our surgeries while looking through a microscope, so I didn’t think that there would be a robot to use for these surgeries.

But maybe I was wrong! In October 2025, robotic cataract surgeries were performed in humans. The surgeon and the patient were in the same room, but the surgeon was sitting far from the patient and working with an interface that allowed the robot, which was close to the patient, to perform the necessary maneuvers to remove the cataract.

Maybe someday we will do all our cataract surgeries with robots!