NeuroBot Completes First Remote Brain Surgery: Beijing Surgeon Operates on Patient in Xinjiang
MedRobot's NeuroBot system completed the first remote brain surgery, with a Beijing neurosurgeon controlling a surgical robot in Xinjiang over a 5G network to perform deep brain stimulation electrode implantation on a Parkinson's patient, with latency of just 8 milliseconds.
MedRobot announced on April 30 that its NeuroBot surgical system has completed the world's first remote brain surgery. Professor Li Yong, chief neurosurgeon at Beijing's Tiantan Hospital, controlled a NeuroBot unit located in Urumqi, Xinjiang, over a 5G network to perform a deep brain stimulation (DBS) electrode implantation on a Parkinson's disease patient.
End-to-end latency during the procedure was just 8 milliseconds — well below the 20-millisecond safety threshold required for surgical operations. The surgery took approximately three hours, on par with an in-person procedure. The patient recovered well, with significant improvement in tremor symptoms.
The technical challenge of remote brain surgery lies in its extreme precision requirements. DBS electrodes must be implanted into target nuclei just 1.2 millimeters in diameter, with a positional tolerance of no more than 0.5 millimeters. NeuroBot's force-feedback system and sub-millimeter positioning accuracy made the remote procedure feasible.
MedRobot plans to expand NeuroBot's remote surgery services to additional underserved regions by 2031.
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