Dessight Biomedical (迪视医疗), a surgical robot startup, has completed what the firms said is Asia’s first subretinal operation, a milestone in the clinical application of its products.
The company stated in a WeChat post dated today that the surgery, which took place at the Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital in Hangzhou, was undertaken to dissolve a clot resulting from the bleeding macular of a patient’s eye.
The bleeding of macular is often caused by a condition known as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), with a higher incidence among aging folks.
Two doctors at the hospital, Professors Shen Lijun and Chen Yiqi, led a team of surgeons to perform procedures on the patient, with the aid of an ophthalmic surgical robot developed by Dessight.
The surgery went well and the patient, now discharged from the hospital, has been recuperating.
Dessight credited its R&D team for this success, saying the firm’s ophthalmic surgical robot system has made significant inroads in clinical application.
The Hangzhou-headquartered startup claims that the recent surgery set a precedent across the world in robot-assisted treatment of bleeding macular caused by AMD and other disorders.
Photo courtesy of Dessight Biomedical
According to estimates by The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, AMD is the third most common cause of blindness, after cataract and glaucoma, in the world and the leading cause of blindness in higher-income countries with aging populations.
WHO said that 196 million people in the world are victims of AMD, and their population is projected to swell to 288 million in 2040.
With increasing adoption of surgical robots across all types of operations, Dessight has pinned high hopes on the democratization of its own technologies.
Ophthalmic surgeons now have a useful tool in their arsenal and will definitely boost the well-being of patients suffering eye diseases, the company said in its WeChat post.
