Calcutta, April 29: Neurosurgeons in the city are set to get a brand new assistant ? a robot.

The Neurosciences Foundation of Bengal (NFB) ? the parent organisation of the National Neurosciences Centre at Peerless Hospital and the upcoming Institute of Neurosciences ? is in the process of installing the city’s first neuro-robotic surgery technique.

The surgical equipment ? one of the most modern and expensive in the world ? would cost between $1 million and $2 million, officials said.

“This equipment will increase the safety and accuracy of complicated and long neurosurgeries,” said Ludwig M. Auer, a consultant neurosurgeon at University Hospital of Newcastle.

“One of the two units will be developed as a centre of super excellence and neuro-robotic surgery will be an important feature,” said R.P. Sengupta, the NFB president.

The chosen unit will also boast of neuro-navigation and other state-of-the-art facilities.

Experts from Europe and North America will be regular visitors here, imparting training to specialists, Sengupta added. Auer, who is visiting the city, will be one of them.

Neuro-navigation helps in accurate planning of microsurgery, he said, which “helps in locating precisely even a small point in the brain”.

In neuro-robotic surgery, the robot has the entire information about the patient’s brain and uses it to go to the target point.

“It is an electronically driven mechanical arm and acts as an assistant to the surgeon,” Auer said. “There are parts of the brain which a surgeon decides are no-entry areas. If the no-entry areas are pre-defined, then the robot will not allow intervention there, thus making the surgery safer.”

“A robot is never tired, distracted or unfocused. The robot arm is a safeguard against human tremor in micro-surgery where a surgeon has to operate at an accuracy of one millimetre,” Auer said.