Well, just a bit of info, a surgical robot has been designed, one of our students for team 379 and his father (surgeon) were discussing this with me recently. It is known as the Da Vinci Surgical System. The surgeon, places his/her hands into a pair of gloves that, from my understanding, have sensors that replicate all the degrees of freedom found in the human hand. The surgeon also views the patient through some sort of vision system as the operation is going on. The gloves, therefore, control robotic hands/tools inside the operation room. There seems to be several benefits to this system. Check it out at:
http://davincisurgery.com/surgery/system/index.aspx