Urumqi, Xinjiang—On July 14, the national first robot-assisted 5G ultra remote percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), performed 2800 km apart, was completed by “R-ONE^® Vascular Interventional Surgical Robot (referred to as “R-ONE^® Robot”), a product from Cathbot (Shanghai) Robot Co., Ltd., a joint venture under control by Shanghai MicroPort MedBot (Group) Co., Ltd. (referred to as “MicroPort^® MedBot^®”). Through 5G networking communication, this surgery was performed remotely by Prof. Yundai Chen from 301 Hospital through “R-ONE^® Robot, together with the team of President Prof. Yining Yang of the People's Hospital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (referred to as “Xinjiang People's Hospital”).

The patient Mr. Ai, 59-year-old, with a smoking history of over 20 years, was presented with activity related chest tightness and chest pain a year ago. He was then diagnosed as coronary atherosclerotic heart disease and immediately given oral medication. In the past two months, the discomfort got worsened. On July 11th, he was sent to the Heart and Panvascular Diagnosis and Treatment Center of Xinjiang People's Hospital. The angiography showed severe localized stenosis in the proximal and middle segments of the left anterior descending branch, with a stenosis rate of 95-98%. Unstable angina pectoris of coronary heart disease was diagnosed, and PCI surgery was recommended.

To guarantee more precise surgery, after deliberate and in-depth communication with the patient, Prof. Yining Yang contacted Prof. Yundai Chen of 301 Hospital, and ultimately determined to perform 5G ultra remote PCI for the patient, jointly by the team of Prof. Yundai Chen together with the team of Prof. Yining Yang from Xinjiang People's Hospital. Before surgery, both teams established comprehensive surgical plan and emergency plan, which went through rigorous and sufficient technical justification, animal experiment and scientific ethnics evaluation.

In the morning on July 14th, Prof. Yining Yang and his team from Xinjiang People's Hospital assisted on-site, while Prof. Yundai Chen, through 5G network connection, remotely controlled the R-ONE^® Robot in the operating room of Xinjiang People's Hospital via a robot handle from Beijing. The robot successfully expanded and accurately positioned the balloon through the guide wire, and finally placed the stent in the cardiovascular stenosis. During the operation, expert teams from Beijing and Xinjiang communicated in real-time and cooperated closely, taking only 20 minutes throughout the entire process. Postoperative angiography reexamination showed that the patient's proximal and distal blood flow returned to normal and in good condition. The patient recovered and discharged on July 17th.