While the surgeon’s favourite show tunes blare out from an iPod dock, the patient’s insides will be beamed on to high-definition flatscreen televisions as well as to students around the world as Edinburgh Royal Infirmary meets the Starship Enterprise.

Yesterday, the state-of-the-art Endoalpha operating room was formally opened at the infirmary where pioneering keyhole surgery, in which surgeons perform an operation through tiny incisions on the body, will take place.

The theatre will cater for some of the most complex medical operations and is expected to speed up procedures. The facility will also allow video conferences in which operations are broadcast anywhere in the world, allowing trainee surgeons to learn new techniques.

Read more about the Endoalpha operating theatre at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary