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A radical 'snakebot' that slithers down a patients throat to perform surgery has treated its first patients.

Called the flex, it can go down a patient's throat without needing incisions to gain access.

The device this week successfully operated on a human for the first time - raising hopes it could soon become commonplace.

Open wide! The Flex System is inserted into the throat to perform operations inside the human body

Known as the Flex System, the design is based on research by Howie Choset, Professor of Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania.

The robot-assisted device is being developed by New England-based company Medrobotics Corp.

Surgeons at the University Hospital Dinant Godinne have now completed the world's first robotic-assisted surgical procedures with the Medrobotics' Flex System.

The surgical team of Prof. Marc Remacle and Prof. Georges Lawson successfully performed procedures on two patients, which included the ablation of a vocal fold angiectatic polyp and the resection of tongue-based lymphoid tissue (lingual tonsil).

The first patient had a chronic hoarseness induced by a polyp on the vocal fold, and returned home on the same day of the surgery.

The second patient had severe snoring, and was discharged from the hospital one day after surgery.

'With other approaches, surgeons sometimes cannot achieve the access and visualization that they desire minimally invasively.' said Prof. Remacle. 

'With the Flex® System, we can more easily access and treat patients with challenging anatomy.'

The device (pictured) will primarily operate in the oropharynx (the area between your mouth and the top of your throat) and the endolarynx (within the larynx). But in the future it could also be used for more complex operations like heart procedures

Originally the robot had been used to explore Austria's abandoned Zwentendorf nuclear power plant.

But now this flexible endoscopic system will be used to give surgeons access to parts of the human body that are difficult to reach via other methods.

This will enable more patients to get so-called minimally-invasive treatment, speeding up hospital waiting times.

'The Flex System is the first robot-assisted flexible endoscopic platform for use during surgical procedures,' Dr Samuel Straface, president and CEO of Medrobotics, said in a release.

'The system enables surgeons to access and visualise hard-to-read anatomical locations.'

In addition, the robotic snake can 'deploy specially designed flexible surgical instruments to perform procedures.'

Physicians use a joystick to steer the snake around organs and other obstacles after it has entered through the mouth.

Attached to the head is a high-definition camera so the physicians can see where it is going.

The snake is made of linked segments that enable it to bend while remaining rigid.

Each link mimics the position of the one in front, preventing it from accidentally bumping into something as it moves through the body.

Either side of the camera are ports for small surgical instruments to be attached.

These can be used to operate in confined spaces of the human body.

It will primarily operate in the oropharynx (the area between your mouth and the top of your throat) and the endolarynx (within the larynx).

But in the future it could also be used for more complex operations like heart procedures.

Medrobotics is in the process of marketing the device across Europe, where it could soon be making its way into hospitals.

HOW ROBOTIC SNAKES COULD ALSO BE USED TO EXPLORE MARS

Space scientists are planning to use robotic snakes to explore the hostile surface of Mars. 

A team from the Sintef Research Institute in Trondheim, Norway, is studying how robosnakes could be used to gather samples from hard-to-reach places on the red planet.

The work is part of a feasibility study by the European Space Agency (Esa) which aims to provide greater mobility during space research than traditional rovers can provide.

One idea is to use a conventional rover, such as Curiosity, to carry a robotic snake over large distances and then deploy it to places the rover can't access.

Sintef's robot consists of 10 identical joint modules, each having two motorised degrees of freedom.

The modules are covered by passive wheels to give the robot ground friction, which enables it to slither forward over flat surfaces.