Hangzhou, Zhejiang—On July 20th, the world’s first 3 continuous operations of 5G remote radical prostatectomies in a single day was successfully completed, as assisted by Toumai^® Four-Arm Laparoscopic Surgical Robot (referred to as: Toumai^® Robot)! This surgery was conducted remotely via 5G connection by Prof. Dan Xia, Prof. Shuo Wang from the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine (referred to as FAHZU) and their urology teams. Prof. Hao Pan from FAHZU led a team to Quanzhou to join with the team of Prof. Zhiyang Huang from Quanzhou First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University (referred to as QZFAH). Together, they supported the surgical treatment of the patient at local end and ensure the surgical safety.

The 3 patients receiving the continuous operations were elder males with advanced prostate cancers. They suffered from years of pains, dysuria, leakage of urine, or standing urination inability, with quality of life significantly being decreased. Recently, after they visited QZFAH, Prof. Zhiyang Huang invited Prof. Dan Xia and Prof. Shuo Wang for remote consultations. Based on the patients' pathology and magnetic resonance imaging examinations, it was suggested high degree of malignancy and a large prostate volume. To efficiently remove cancerous tissue and promote the patients' recovery as soon as possible, the expert team, with the consent of the patients and their families, planned to conduct 5G remote robot-assisted radical prostatectomies (RALRP).

Before surgery, medical teams from FAHZU and QZFAH made sufficient preparation, together with MicroPort^® MedBot^® team. They not only performed rigorous and sufficient technical justifications, animal experiments, and scientific ethics evaluations, but also created targeted and cautious individualized treatment plans for the 3 patients.

At 7am on July 20th, the first patient was sent into the operating room. Local medical team made basic preparations for robotic surgery, including anesthesia for patients, reasonable positioning, disinfection, punching, robot equipment installation, etc. During the surgery, Prof. Shuo Wang in Hangzhou remote end operated the swift robotic arms of the Toumai^® Robot in Quanzhou operating room through 5G signals to complete the operation. With the assistance from Toumai^® Robot, Professor Shuo Wang and Professor Dan Xia used their superb skills to accurately free blood vessels and nerves, stripping the surrounding tissue of the prostate layer by layer, completely freeing the huge prostate gland, and completing the resection. Both subsequent surgeries were carried out in an orderly manner and successfully completed.