■ Following the completion of the first radical prostatectomy (RALRP) in China last November, another important progress has been made in clinical research of Toumai^® Laparoscopic Surgical Robot.

■ Clinical trials are being conducted on Toumai^® Endoscopic Robot in many clinical centers, which has gained unanimous recognition from clinical doctors.

Hangzhou, China --- On December 08, 2020, Toumai^® Laparoscopic Surgical Robot (hereinafter referred to as “Toumai^®") independently developed by MicroPort^®Medbot, a robotics-specialized subsidiary of Shanghai MicroPort^® Medical (Group) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Microport^®") completed the first robot-assisted laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (hereinafter referred to as "RAPN”) at Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital. The operation was performed by Professor Zhang Dahong, vice president of Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital and leader of urology. This is the first RAPN operation performed by domestic Toumai^® Endoscopic Robot, as well as another important progress in clinical investigation after Toumai^® Endoscopic Robot completed the first radical prostatectomy (RALRP) performed by domestic endoscopic robot of China last November.

The patient, a 59-year-old woman, was diagnosed as having developed a tumor in her right kidney one month earlier, visited many hospitals for medical treatment and finally came to Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital. After preoperative discussion, Professor Zhang Dahong's team decided to use the domestic Toumai^® Laparoscopic Surgical Robot to perform robot-assisted partial nephrectomy. In the operation, Professor Zhang Dahong accurately judged the tumor boundary according to the 3D high-definition visual field provided by Toumai^® Laparoscopic Surgical Robot, completed the precise operation with smart instruments of 7 degrees of freedom, completely removed the tumor out of the capsule, and completed the suture of kidney wound in a very short time.

On December 10, Professor Zhang Dahong once again used Toumai^® Laparoscopic Surgical Robot to perform zero ischemic partial nephrectomy for a patient with solitary kidney tumor, and successfully preserved the normal kidney tissues and functions which are very important for the patient with solitary kidney.

Professor Zhang Dahong spoke highly of Toumai^® Laparoscopic Surgical Robot after the operation: "The advantages of Toumai^® Laparoscopic Surgical Robot enable doctors to completely remove tumors and suture kidney wounds more quickly and efficiently when performing RAPN operations. The intraoperative warm ischemia time is 18 minutes, and the bleeding is less than 10 ml. The operation fluency and operation time can completely match the level of similar foreign products. We have completed two similar operations successfully in the past two days, and the operation ability of Toumai^® Endoscopic Robot is really exciting."

In the development of urological surgery, nephrectomy has experienced the development stages of open partial nephrectomy (OPN), laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (LPN) and robot-assisted partial nephrectomy (RAPN), of which LPN and RAPN have become the current development trend of the industry due to such advantageous effect as small wound area and less damage to patients and can achieve the equal oncology effect to OPN. Compared with LPN, RAPN can greatly shorten the operation time and protect the nerves and blood vessels of patients because of the advantages of stable operation of mechanical arm and high dexterous movement ability provided by wrist instruments within a narrow space, so that the patients can recover faster after operation, and generally thumb up higher degree of satisfaction.

Toumai^® Laparoscopic Surgical Robot can be widely used in urology, especially for a series of reconstruction operations including partial nephrectomy. Previously, it has successfully completed numerous endoscopic robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) and robot-assisted radical nephrectomy (RARN) in Oriental Hospital affiliated to Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai First Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University (Shanghai Changhai Hospital) and Renji Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, etc. Its technological advancement, safety and effectiveness have been clearly verified, and it has extremely high clinical advantages. At present, Toumai^® Endoscopic Robot is steadily advancing the clinical trial and industrialization process.

MicroPort^® started the layout of medical robots as early as 2014 and started the independent research and development of endoscopic surgical robots. The MicroPort^® MedBot has for years focused on the R&D and industrialization of minimally-invasive surgical robots, and gradually formed and improved a multi-department integrated solutions represented by five "Golden Racetracks": endoscopic, orthopedic, panvascular, natural lumen and percutaneous puncture fields. Dr. He Chao, President of MicroPort^® MedBot, said: "Clinical trials are being conducted on Toumai^® Endoscopic Robot in many clinical centers, which has gained unanimous recognition from clinical doctors. We expect Toumai^® Laparoscopic Surgical Robot to assist doctors to complete more minimally invasive, accurate, safe and efficient difficult operations, and help more patients rebuild their lives or improve their quality of life. "