Surgery as art? Robotic surgery machine is latest exhibit at Flint Institute of Arts

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There's a da Vinci on display at the Flint institute of Arts, but it's not a painting or a sculpture.

It's a robot — sort of.

The most recent addition to the museum's exhibit, "The Art of Video Games," is a da Vinci Surgical model from Intuitive Surgical Inc. It's a device surgeons use to perform surgery without touching the patient themselves. Instead, they use a 3-D camera and hand controls to direct the da Vinci, allowing them to, among other things, be more precise.

So, what's a surgery machine doing in an art museum?

"The robot ties into the exhibit in terms of video games," said Associate Curator Ashley Phifer. "The da Vinci robot came from the technology video game designers came up with."

That's easy to see. Using the machine (guests are allowed to jump on and try it out) is very much like a video game. To use the hand controls, located below the screen you watch — a tiny thing you look into, like getting your eyes checked at Secretary of State offices) you insert your thumb and middle finger into two small loops atop what looks like a pair of pincers. Those control smaller pincers that perform the surgery through tiny incisions.

The joints of the robot move similar to the way a human hand and wrist would move, except with much more range and flexibility. There's also no fear of holding your hand steady. The robot doesn't move until you tell it to.

On the model on display at FIA, guests can use the pincers to pick up small rubber bands and other objects. Usually, they're surprised to turn around and see just what a tiny surface they were working on.

"These look like they're so big, but you look at them on the table and they're really tiny," said Katie Leist of Flushing after trying her hands at the surgical machine.

A note on the word "robot." It gets thrown around a lot, but as an Intuitive sales rep on site pointed out, it's a bit of a misnomer. The machine doesn't do the actual surgery. Surgeons do.

The model at FIA, a training system, is on loan from Hurley Medical Center, but all three hospitals in the area have them — Genesys Regional Medical Center, McLaren Flint, and Hurley. 

Mona Harbas is an OB/GYN at Hurley, and said when she first went into training for using the da Vinci system, she was skeptical. Now, she says she's hooked.

"It took me a couple of years to try it," she said. "It just makes it so much easier."

Aside from precision, there are other benefits. The da Vinci models perform laparoscopic surgery, making four tiny incisions instead of one larger, open incision. That means there's less risk of infection, surgeries don't take as long, and patients heal faster.

An Intuitive representative said the most common departments in hospitals they're found is in general surgery. He said they're becoming more and more common in procedures ranging from removing colons to hysterectomies.

The most noticeable drawback in doing those surgeries, Harbas said, is that, especially for surgeons who have never tried the model, they're used to the tactile sensations of working with their hands.

"You're used to feeling the tissue," she said.

With practice, however, she said she overcame that obstacle.

Now, she thinks the next step will be surgeons being able to use them remotely. In other words, if the specialist you need is five states away, you might no longer need to go there for the procedure. That technology doesn't yet exist, but Harbas said she's hopeful.

"It's changing dramatically," she said. 

The "Art of Video Games" exhibit runs until Jan. 18.