Severance Hospital Becomes First in the World to Achieve 50,000 Robotic Surgeries

28 Months After Reaching 40,000 Surgeries in 2024
Hospital Now Owns 12 Surgical and Educational Robots, Including Five Single Port Models

Severance Hospital has become the first medical institution in the world to achieve 50,000 robot-assisted surgeries.

Ham Wonsik, Director of the Robot Endoscopic Surgery Center at Severance Hospital, is performing robot surgery. Severance Hospital

On April 21, Severance Hospital announced that Ham Wonsik, Director of the Robot Endoscopic Surgery Center and Professor of Urology, recently performed a robot-assisted partial nephrectomy on a 65-year-old kidney cancer patient, Mr. Kim, marking the milestone of 50,000 robot surgeries.

Professor Ham opted for a robot-assisted partial nephrectomy rather than a total nephrectomy, which would remove the entire kidney. Partial nephrectomy is a highly complex procedure that selectively removes only the tumor, preserving kidney function. Because the kidney is an organ with abundant blood flow, the surgery requires temporarily blocking blood flow to the kidney, precisely excising the tumor in a short time, and then suturing the kidney back to its original form. In this process, minimizing blood loss and ischemia time is critical. Robot-assisted surgery enables precise and safe procedures through high-definition 3D imaging and delicate instrument manipulation.

This is the first time, both in Korea and internationally, that a single medical institution has achieved 50,000 robot-assisted surgeries. Severance Hospital, which introduced robot-assisted surgery in Korea for the first time in 2005, reached 10,000 cases in 2013, 20,000 in 2018, 30,000 in 2021, and 40,000 in 2024. The latest 50,000-case milestone was reached just 28 months after hitting 40,000 cases.

Currently, Severance Hospital owns 12 surgical robots and 2 training robots. Among these, the hospital has five Single Port models—the highest number in Korea—which require only one incision. Single Port robot-assisted surgeries are advantageous for procedures in narrow and deep areas, such as thyroid and oral cancer resections, and because they require only one incision, patients experience less pain and scarring, resulting in higher satisfaction.

The proportion of Single Port surgeries has also increased significantly. When Single Port procedures were first introduced in 2018, they accounted for just 2% of all robot-assisted surgeries (including Multi Port surgeries), but by 2024, the rate had risen to 40%, and as of this month, it stands at 47%.

At Severance Hospital, robots are used in a wide range of clinical departments, including urology, thyroid and endocrine surgery, gastrointestinal surgery, otolaryngology, colorectal surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery, thoracic surgery, and breast surgery. Looking at the breakdown by department, the surgical disciplines accounted for 48% of all robot-assisted surgeries—the highest percentage—with thyroid and endocrine surgery alone making up 26% of the total, representing more than half of all surgical cases. Urology followed with 34%, while otolaryngology (10%) and obstetrics and gynecology (6%) rounded out the major contributors.

According to research published last year in the international journal 'Journal of Robotic Surgery,' Yonsei University published 196 papers on robot-assisted surgery between 2014 and 2023, the highest number worldwide. Since 2008, more than 2,300 physicians from 43 countries—including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan—have received training in robot-assisted surgery at Severance Hospital.

Lee Kangyoung, President of Severance Hospital, stated, "Achieving 50,000 robot-assisted surgeries goes beyond a simple number; it reflects our focus on patient safety and treatment outcomes," and added, "We will continue to enhance personalized precision medicine based on advanced surgical technologies and clinical expertise."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.