Robotics and laser surgery

Laser surgery can be defined as the use of a coherent, intense (high-energy) beam of light to cut, char, vaporize or coagulate soft or hard biological tissue, instead of the conventional use of a mechanical instrument such as a scalpel. It should be noted that wavelength, laser power and laser pulse duration can be selected or adjusted to suit the task in hand, as these parameters produce different effects on biological tissues. Laser surgery is generally performed in the operating room, whether in a clinic or a hospital. The patient's journey to the operating room is similar to that of conventional surgery, including the possible administration of a sedative or anesthetic.

The use of a laser in surgery offers a number of advantages, not least the almost systematic absence of bleeding, resulting in more aesthetic healing, a less invasive procedure with less pain, and above all greater precision in surgical gestures . It should be noted that a large proportion of laser surgery procedures can be performed on an outpatient basis, or require only a short hospital stay. Some comparative studies have also shown that laser surgery is generally less expensive than conventional surgery . This is partly due to the fact that more and more laser procedures are performed on an outpatient basis.

The first investigations into the use of lasers in medical applications date back to the 1960s, and the first surgical procedures were carried out in the 1970s . Ophthalmology, and more specifically refractive surgery (correction of myopia), was the first application of the surgical laser. However, the use of lasers in ophthalmic surgery today differs from the early days, which were limited to replacing the scalpel for a radial keratotomy procedure in order to reduce post-operative trauma. A technique called LASIK