Seoul St. Mary's Hospital Achieves 10,000 Robot-Assisted Surgeries... Active in Uterine and Prostate Disease Operations

Professor Song Gyo-young, a gastrointestinal surgeon who performed the 10,000th robotic surgery and serves as the director of the Robotic Surgery Center at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, along with the surgical team and hospital staff, visited the hospital room of the 10,000th robotic surgery patient. They held a commemorative ceremony to deliver messages of encouragement and gifts, wishing for a speedy recovery and good health.
[Photo by Seoul St. Mary's Hospital]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] Catholic University Seoul St. Mary's Hospital announced on the 24th that it has recently succeeded in robotic gastrectomy for early gastric cancer patients, achieving the shortest time in Korea to reach 10,000 Da Vinci robotic surgeries.

Seoul St. Mary's Hospital introduced the Da Vinci robotic surgical system 'Da Vinci S' in March 2009, starting with urology prostate cancer surgeries and has since performed robotic surgeries in various fields.

In May 2010, the hospital established a Robotic Surgery Center by gathering specialists from surgery, urology, obstetrics and gynecology, otolaryngology, thoracic surgery, and anesthesiology and pain medicine. The center currently operates a total of four robotic surgical systems simultaneously: three 4th generation 'Da Vinci Xi' units and one 'Da Vinci SP'.

In particular, by utilizing the single-port platform Da Vinci SP introduced last year, the center performs delicate and complex surgeries through a single 2.7 cm incision, accessing deep and narrow surgical sites. The Da Vinci SP features surgical instruments and a camera mounted on robotic arms with joints, allowing multi-angle views that facilitate precise surgical procedures.

By department, the number of surgeries out of the 10,000 cases was highest in urology with 3,685 cases, followed by obstetrics and gynecology (3,527 cases), surgery (2,417 cases), otolaryngology (301 cases), and thoracic surgery (70 cases). By major disease, the numbers were as follows: uterus 2,909 cases, prostate 2,014 cases, kidney 1,142 cases, hepatobiliary and pancreatic 758 cases, colorectal 644 cases, thyroid 632 cases, gastric cancer 428 cases, gynecologic cancer 365 cases, bladder 291 cases, head and neck 255 cases, ovary 253 cases, ureter and renal pelvis 154 cases.

Song Gyo-young, Director of the Robotic Surgery Center and Professor of Gastrointestinal Surgery, said, "The Robotic Surgery Center has achieved qualitative and quantitative growth with the best surgical outcomes in each field in the shortest time in Korea, based on continuous interest in new surgeries, an independent robotic surgery clinical authority program, and advanced center management. It has also made remarkable progress in education and management, strengthening the global leadership status of Seoul St. Mary's Hospital.”

To commemorate the achievement of 10,000 robotic surgeries, Seoul St. Mary's Hospital plans to hold the '2022 12th Seoul St. Mary's Hospital Robotic Surgery Center Symposium' on the 28th of this month at the Omnibus Park Convention Hall on the Catholic University Seongui Campus. Through this symposium, the hospital intends to share the accumulated 13 years of experience in operating the Robotic Surgery Center as well as enhanced surgical experiences and know-how across various clinical departments.