A surgeon controls a surgical robot during a procedure at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University on June 12. [Photo/sunnews.cn]

The first robotic surgery ever performed in southwest Fujian province was carried out at Xiamen's First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University (FAHXMU) on June 12.

The operation only took about 20 minutes to remove a tumor and the amount of blood loss was less than 5 milliliters.

Experts say that robotic surgery integrates many high-tech methodologies, which is regarded as being of epoch-making significance in the medical field. The surgery is completely carried out by robotic arms, implementing the instructions of the surgeon who is removed from the operating table.

"To put it simply, it's a robot that does what surgeons think and do," said Jiang Jie, director of FAHXMU.

According to Jiang, the robotic arm's rotating abilities give it many more degrees of freedom of movement that a human, making it more flexible than surgeon's hands, and it can filter out small human errors such as trembling or shaking hands. It also has unique advantages in dealing with complex and difficult operations.

Robotic surgery is developing rapidly throughout the world, with more than 800,000 operations having been performed. There are about 80 robotic surgical systems in China and about 100,000 procedures have been performed to date.

Experts caution, however, that robotic surgery is not a panacea. An operation by robotic arms requires a relatively large space. Medical procedures such as eye, brain and body surface surgery are not regarded as being suitable for robotic surgery.