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Grunt work

The automated drill reduces the time for bone removal from two hours using a hand drill to 2.5 minutes.

“It was like doing archaeology. We had to slowly take away the bone to avoid sensitive structures,” said William Couldwell, a neurosurgeon at University of Utah in the US.

“I was interested in developing a low-cost drill that could do a lot of the grunt work to reduce surgeon fatigue,” said AK Balaji, associate professor at University of Utah.

First, the patient is imaged using a CT scan to gather bone data and identify the exact location of sensitive structures, such as nerves and major veins and arteries that must be avoided.

Surgeons use this information to programme the cutting path of the drill.

“The software lets the surgeon choose the optimum path from point A to point B, like Google Maps,” said Balaji.

- Now, robot drill for 50 times faster skull surgery, TribuneIndia.com, May 1, 2017.

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Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.