Italian medic's innovative approach boosts work at Shanghai hospital

Giuseppe Bigatti has made valiant efforts in leading his team at Renji Hospital in Shanghai during a challenging year.

In January, when the COVID-19 outbreak emerged, the Italian, who is director of the hospital's hysteroscopy center, refused to abandon his patients and return home.

At the center, which was put into operation in August and is the first of its kind in the world, a wide array of medical instruments is used for some 100 procedures carried out each week. This figure is shortly expected to rise to 150.

"My work has never been affected by the pandemic and we have not had to suspend operations at the center," Bigatti said.

"There is trust in the concepts and instruments we use, which are changing the way we perform operations."

Bigatti volunteered to join the fight against COVID-19 in Wuhan, Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak in China, but his offer was refused, as there was no demand for medical workers specializing in gynecology and obstetrics.

The 58-year-old medic is the inventor of the Intrauterine Bigatti Shaver, or IBS. The device is publicly acknowledged as the safest and most precise new instrument in the field of hysteroscopy, a procedure in which doctors examine and treat the inside of the uterus.

The IBS uses mechanical energy, rather than electricity, to treat endometrial diseases.

After performing the first IBS operation in Milan, Italy, in 2009, Bigatti continued to perfect the device.

He said, "I chose to work in China, which is a big stage with a large population and where there is efficient and diverse collaboration, in order to get clinical results for the new device more quickly and benefit more women worldwide."

Bigatti said that when electricity is used to treat endometrial diseases, there is a 1 percent chance of the uterus being pierced, while there have been no postoperative complications arising from use of the IBS to date.

"The shaver minimizes injury to the uterus and optimally protects the endometrium (the mucous membrane lining the uterus). It only deals with the pathology and nothing else. This is important, as many patients undergo such operations during fertility treatment," Bigatti said.

Early this year, he said his team would use the conventional method, instead of the shaver, when dealing with hard myomas－tumors growing in or out of the uterus. However, Bigatti recently said the team's ability to remove myomas by using the new method had increased over the past year.

"The conventional method is now used at our center to treat only one patient in 10－those with very large and hard myomas－and I believe this ratio will decrease as we widen our experience," he said.

The center is the first in the world to conduct clinical research into the shaver's safety and efficacy.

Thanks to patient numbers based on its population, China has advantages for such research Bigatti said, adding, "However, the center's aim is not about the quantity of work, but the quality."

This month, a similar center, following the guidelines and concepts used by the one at Renji Hospital, was launched at Shenzhen Maternity and Child Healthcare Hospital in Guangdong province.

"I believe that this concept will be replicated one day in many parts of China," Bigatti said, adding that at least 50 leading experts from hospitals nationwide have visited his center.

He said he never thought of returning to Italy during a tough year. The most recent visit he and his wife paid to the country was during Christmas last year to visit Bigatti's 88-year-old mother.

The medic, who originally only planned to work in Shanghai for two years, is considering renewing his contract for another two.

"I think I can only return to Italy with any degree of satisfaction when the center is able to operate smoothly without me," he said.

"For me, two more years is not a problem, but a good decision. I want to give my Chinese colleagues more experience, which is only gained over time and without taking shortcuts."