Recently, the team led by Director Lan Weihua and Professor Zhang Yao from the Department of Urology, Army Medical Center of PLA (Daping Hospital), Army Medical University, consecutively completed four highly complex challenging surgeries using China’s first domestically developed single-port endoscopic surgical robot equipped with snake-like instruments. 

This marks the first clinical application of this type of advanced domestic robot in the field of urology in Western China, signifying that the center's minimally invasive urological procedures have officially entered a "new era of single-port surgery" when treating complex urinary system tumors.

Discharged within 3 days after surgery:An 80-Year-Old Patient Receives a New Lease on Life

Among the four consecutive surgeries performed, the patients included an elderly patient over 80 years old and others with complex kidney tumors. Thanks to the "single-port endoscopic surgical robot equipped with snake-like instruments" all four patients had their postoperative hospital stays reduced to just three days.

The first patient was an 80-year-old with high-risk prostate cancer, accompanied by a large hernia sac and severe adhesions. Within the extremely confined space deep in the pelvis, the "snake-like instruments" flexibly avoided obstacles to precisely complete the resection and reconstruction of the urethra and bladder neck. The elderly patient marveled afterward, "I never imagined such a major surgery could leave just one small hole on my abdomen, and I was able to get out of bed the very next day."

The other three patients with kidney tumors faced even more challenging conditions: tumors located close to the renal hilum with complex arterial branches, the largest measuring 5.6cm × 4.6cm and having already destroyed the collecting system. The team flexibly adopted both transperitoneal and retroperitoneal approaches, completely resecting the tumors and precisely repairing the kidneys. One patient recalled, "I thought I would be in severe pain right after the surgery, but it was just a dull ache. I was discharged in three days, and the scar is nearly invisible."

Removing Disease Through One Port with Thread-Like Precision: Accessing World-Class Minimally Invasive Care Close to Home

"Traditional robotic surgery requires four to six ports, whereas this domestic single-port robot needs only one tiny incision of 3 to 4 centimeters," explained Director Lan Weihua. "Its three snake-like instruments and 3D endoscope can be inserted through one trocar, achieving 540° rotation, 120° bending, and a terminal repeated positioning accuracy of 0.1 millimeters. This allows surgeons to operate more flexibly and suture more precisely when tackling 'forbidden zones' such as elderly patients, narrow spaces, and complex anatomies."

Professor Zhang Yao added, "More importantly, single-port technology causes almost zero interference with abdominal organs. Patients experience less trauma, minimal bleeding, and can be discharged as quickly as three days post-surgery."

As a Da Vinci Robotic Urological Surgery Clinical Training & Teaching Demonstration Center," the Urology Department of Daping Hospital has completed over a thousand high-difficulty robotic surgeries since 2016.

The successful execution of these single-port robotic surgeries represents another charge forward for the department in the field of minimally invasive procedures. In the future, the Urology Department of Daping Hospital will continue to explore and innovate, allowing a vast number of patients in Western China to access international-standard, precise, minimally invasive diagnostic and treatment services close to home.