Professor Kim Hyun-koo of Korea University Guro Hospital has succeeded in operating a lung cancer patient using only robotic catheter surgery for the first time in Korea, the hospital said Wednesday.

The existing lung cancer robotic technique has advantages such as smaller incision site and less postoperative pain and faster recovery rate during the surgical procedure. Resection and suture of critical parts such as the pulmonary vessels and bronchus were not possible with robot surgery, however, and there was a disadvantage in using the surgical instrument for thoracic surgery during robot surgery.

Professor Kim Hyun-koo.

To overcome these shortcomings, Professor Kim, who has been using the equipment developed recently, is regarded as being capable of performing more accurate and safer surgeries with robotic surgery, as well as more correct and secure by carrying out pulmonary tissue detachment and blood vessel and bronchial resection at the same time.

"In lung cancer surgery, vascular and bronchial resection is an essential part to determine the success or failure of the operation; however, it's hard to excise the site because of the existing robot surgery,” Professor Kim_김현구 said. "With the robotic surgical instrument, however, we can perform blood vessel and bronchial resection and suture directly so that a more sophisticated and stable robot operation has become possible."

The hospital announced the results at the 25th Annual Meeting of the Asian Society for Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery (ASCVTS 2017), attended by more than 1,800 people from 50 countries.

The EndoWrist automatic suture machine, the device used in this operation, can be used in other surgical operations as well as lung cancer robot surgery and can exceed the limits of conventional robot surgery.

connie@docdocdoc.co.kr

<© Korea Biomedical Review, All rights reserved.>