Grape surgery

Last updated

A scale model of a hospital room with the da Vinci Surgical System performing surgery on a grape Grape Hospital Diorama (cropped).jpg
A scale model of a hospital room with the da Vinci Surgical System performing surgery on a grape

Grape surgery refers to the use of grapes as training models in surgical simulations. A video of the robotic da Vinci Surgical System peeling and stitching the skin of a grape, accompanied by the text "they did surgery on a grape", became an Internet meme in 2018.

Contents

Medical applications

Grapes have been utilised as low-cost training models for surgical simulations, particularly in the fields of microsurgery and ophthalmology. [1] [2] [3] In ophthalmology, grapes serve as a cheaper, and more readily available, alternative to virtual reality training and physical models, such as animal eyes, artificial model eyes, or human eyes sourced from eye banks or donated cadavers. [4] [5]

The elastic skin of a grape has similar mechanical tension to the lens capsule of the human eye and has been identified as a potentially useful model for continuous curvilinear capsulorhexis training. [6] However, grapes cannot fully replicate the challenge of this procedure as they lack any structure analagous to the anterior chamber of the eye. [5]

Some robot-assisted surgery systems have used grapes as training models to demonstrate the precision capabilities of the system, by performing tasks such as peeling the delicate skin and stitching it back together. [1] [7] [8] [9]

Internet meme

Footage and images of the da Vinci Surgical System peeling the skin of a grape became part of an internet meme in November 2018. [10] The original footage of the system being used on a grape was published on YouTube in 2010, and another video featuring the stitching of a grape's skin back together was posted there in 2014. [10] [8]

Cheddar TV posted a video on 7 July 2017 showing the 2010 footage, with the onscreen caption "they did surgery on a grape". This was screenshotted and posted on Instagram by the meme account simpledorito repeating the caption in the post's description. [10] [7] The phrase and imagery went viral, with other social media users, and some brand accounts, expanding on the meme's format. Imagery of a robot performing surgery on a grape at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre from May 2018 was incorporated into the meme. [8] [9] The virality of the meme has been attributed to the vagueness and absurdity of the phrase "they did surgery on a grape", and the lack of context provided. [10] [7]

References

  1. 1 2 Lee, Bruce Y. (2 December 2018). "They Did Surgery On A Grape: What Is This New Viral Meme?". Forbes . Retrieved 20 July 2025.
  2. ↑ Banoub, Raphael G; Sanghvi, Harshal; Gill, Gurnoor S; Paredes, Alfredo A; Bains, Harnaina K; Patel, Anita; Agarwal, Ankur; Gupta, Shailesh (22 December 2024). "Enhancing Ophthalmic Care: The Transformative Potential of Digital Twins in Healthcare". Cureus. 16 (12). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 7–8. doi: 10.7759/cureus.76209 . ISSN   2168-8184. PMC   11750212 . PMID   39840199.
  3. ↑ Santos, Deivid Ramos dos; Teixeira, Renan Kleber Costa; Pimentel, Antônio Leonardo Jatahi Cavalcanti; Corrêa, Wender de Jesus Pena; Araújo, Nayara Pontes de; Calvo, Faustino Chaves; Barros, Rui Sérgio Monteiro de (2020). "O oftalmologista e as uvas: Um modelo de treinamento microcirúrgico" [The ophthalmologist and the grapes: A microsurgical training model]. Revista Brasileira de Oftalmologia (in Portuguese and English). 79 (6): 366–369. doi:10.5935/0034-7280.20200080 (inactive 27 July 2025) – via SciELO.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
  4. ↑ Zhang, Zhaotian; Li, Songshan; Sun, Limei; Yan, Wenjia; Huang, Li; Lu, Jinglin; Wang, Qiong; Li, Mengke; Zheng, Danying; Liu, Yizhi; Ding, Xiaoyan (2022). "Skills assessment after a grape-based microsurgical course for ophthalmology residents: randomised controlled trial". British Journal of Ophthalmology . 107 (9): 1395–1402. doi: 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2022-321135 . PMC   10447371 . PMID   35701080.
  5. 1 2 Solyman, Omar; Serhan, Hashem Abu; Kamel, Hesham F.; Eldib, Amgad; Obaia, Ahmed S. Abo; Aref, Amr; Sayed-Ahmed, Ibrahim Osama; Khashaba, Mohamed; Khodeiry, Mohamed M.; Abushanab, Mokhtar M. (2022). "A Novel Cost-Effective Simulation Model for Continuous Curvilinear Capsulorhexis". Clinical Ophthalmology . 16: 2759–2764. doi: 10.2147/OPTH.S378298 . PMID   36046573.
  6. ↑ Figueira, Edwin C.; Wang, Louis W.; Brown, Tani M.; Masselos, Katherine; Pandya, Vivek B.; Dauber, Sophia L.; Lee, Katelyn J.Y.; Amjadi, Shahriar; Skalicky, Simon E.; Francis, Ian C. (2008). "The grape: An appropriate model for continuous curvilinear capsulorhexis". Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery. 34 (9): 1610–1611. doi:10.1016/j.jcrs.2008.04.049. PMID   18721730.
  7. 1 2 3 Feldman, Brian (26 November 2018). "They Did Surgery on a Grape" . New York Magazine . Archived from the original on 26 November 2018. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
  8. 1 2 3 Nagesh, Ashitha (26 November 2018). "New meme alert: Did you know they did surgery on a grape?". BBC . Retrieved 20 July 2025.
  9. 1 2 Santiago, Amanda Luz Henning (26 November 2018). "'They did surgery on a grape' is the weird meme that's your new obsession". Mashable . Retrieved 20 July 2025.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Hess, Peter (26 November 2018). ""They Did Surgery on a Grape" Meme Began With Legally Suspect Medical Tool". Inverse . Retrieved 20 July 2025.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.