Chinese surgical robot deepens global medical ties

In a surgical training center in Heilongjiang province, a Chinese surgeon joined forces with doctors in Cuenca, Ecuador, to perform surgery on an Ecuadorian patient — a feat made possible by the Kangduo SR2000 linking surgical teams across more than 16,000 kilometers.

The April operation marked the first remote surgery by the Kangduo Robot, developed by Harbin Sagebot Intelligent Medical Equipment Co, in Latin America, signaling the start of a new era of medical care for patients in Ecuador, powered by Chinese innovation.

The 42-year-old patient had long suffered from metabolic syndrome.

Her medical history included laparoscopic cholecystectomy, compounded by morbid obesity, hypertension, diabetes, fatty liver, dyslipidemia, and sleep apnea, necessitating a high-level minimally invasive metabolic weight loss surgery.

In Ecuador, the surgery was led by Professor Jorge Bravo Lopez, a key figure in the field of bariatric surgery in Latin America.

Meanwhile, Wang Kuan, director of the gastrointestinal surgery department at Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, remotely controlled the core operations, observed the intricate anatomical layers inside the abdominal cavity in real time and jointly managed every critical step of the surgery.

After the surgery, grateful feedback from the patient's family was quickly relayed back to the remote command system in Harbin.

Upon waking from surgery, the patient was clear-headed, displayed minimal physical stress responses, experienced significantly less bleeding than with traditional surgeries, and had an aesthetically pleasing incision with almost no noticeable pain. "It is a milestone experience in my surgical career," said Bravo.

"The robot demonstrated exceptional operational precision and system stability, with a user-friendly console design."

The open multi-screen imaging "perfectly" conveyed the subtle structures within the abdominal surgical field, he said. "Among all the surgical robots I've used in Latin America, the Kangduo Robot is the one that best understands the workflow of surgeons."

At the remote operation console in Harbin, Wang also witnessed the precision of the entire surgery.

"In the trans-Pacific surgical environment, the remote transmission system of the robot achieved millisecond-level signal coverage, with no data transmission delay or interruption throughout," said Wang. "During surgery on the patient, its performance in vascular anastomosis, intestinal anastomosis, and fine separation fully met the standards for high-grade minimally invasive surgery."

The successful surgery is the result of over a decade of dedicated efforts by the Harbin-based company. As a national-level "little giant enterprise" specializing in new technologies, Sagebot has built its independent intellectual property rights system.

The Kangduo SR2000 covers four major medical fields: urology, gynecology, general surgery, and thoracic surgery, and is equipped with the world's first open 4K plus 3D multi-screen display doctor console, as well as a multi-modal high-performance image navigation platform.

To date, the company has received over 100 orders for the robots, and the robots have completed nearly 15,000 clinical surgeries, setting a record for a single type of robot with over 1,600 surgeries done annually and 12 consecutive surgeries by a single machine in a day.

The clinical applications of the robot have been carried out in more than 100 top-tier hospitals nationwide, including Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Peking University First Hospital, the First Hospital of China Medical University and Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital.

The company has also established an agency network for marketing as well as sales and after-sales services for the robot in nearly 50 countries and regions.

"The demand for surgical robots is enormous and foreign surgical robots are expensive," said Du Zhijiang, founder and chairman of Sagebot. "We aim to create surgical robots that ordinary customers can afford."

He added that the price of the Kangduo is only about half of that of imported products, significantly lowering the threshold for minimally invasive surgery and reducing the financial burden on patients.

"However, our goal is not just to replace imported products but to make intelligent healthcare accessible to more patients, more hospitals, and the entire healthcare system," said Du. "Looking to the future, we will continue to adhere to the development path of independent research and development and scenario implementation, continuously iterate technology and develop new products."

zhouhuiying@chinadaily.com.cn