Dalian, Liaoning — On January 11^th, the Second Hospital of Dalian Medical University (referred to as “SHDMU”), together with MicroPort^® MedBot^®, hosted the ceremony for the celebration of “Director Jun Wang, Prof. Shichao Han and Their Teams from SHDMU Successfully Completed 50 Cases of Clinical Verification Surgeries for the Domestic Toumai^® Surgical Robot”. It signifies the maturity of Toumai^® in gynecological applications, being able to complete robot-assisted gynecological surgery under complex and difficult conditions.

Previously on January 7^th, based on the clinical applications of Toumai^® in SHDMU, Director Jun Wang and Prof. Shichao Han presented an academic lecture on The Second Gynecologic Robotic Surgery Xinghai Forum, where they repeatedly emphasized the excellent performance and product strength of Toumai^® robots in assisting gynecological tumor surgery, which ensured the safe minimally invasive operations for the surgery.

On the morning of January 11^th, the offline ceremony was held at SHDMU to congratulate Director Jun Wang, Prof. Shichao Han and their Teams from SHDMU for the successful completion of 50 cases of clinical trial surgeries for the domestic Toumai^® Surgical Robot. This event was attended by SHDMU’s President Zhiyu Liu, Vice President Liming Wang, Medical Administration Director Yufeng Liu, Gynecology Department Director Jun Wang, Prof. Shichao Han from Gynecology Department, Anesthesiology Department Director Shaoyang Xiao, OR Head Nurse Jun Song, Regional Medical Development Director Weikun Qu, Senior Engineer Baoao Qu from Medical Equipment Department, Physicians Jing Na, Ya Li, Xinyou Wang from Gynecology Department, as well as Ms. Jingjing Cai, Senior Marketing Director of the MicroPort^® MedBot^®.

Zhiyu Liu, President of SHDMU, said “The successful completion of the 50 cases by Toumai^® robot is a phased success. We are expecting more, that is, in the near future, the Toumai^® robot made in China will make its debut in the operating rooms of SHDMU. Inspired by the spirit of the 20^th CPC National Congress, the healthcare sector maintains innovation driven development and emphasizes the power of “Made in China”. We have been supporting and accepting national brands and are pleased to see that Toumai^® robot is able to effectively assist physicians in completing the entire surgical operation. SHDMU is also expecting to sustain deeper cooperation with Toumai^® robot. In the future, introduction of innovative products developed by MicroPort^® MedBot^® into such departments as urology and hepatobiliary surgery will promote the extensive application of robots made in China in clinical surgeries in our hospital.”

Ms. Jingjing Cai, Senior Marketing Director of the MicroPort^® MedBot^®, said: “First of all, I’d like to sincerely congratulate Director Jun Wang and Prof. Shichao Han for their successful completion of 50 cases of clinical verification surgeries for Toumai^® robot, laying a solid foundation for domestic robots to be utilized clinically and realize product value. I would also appreciate the support and trust by the entire medical and nursing team of the Gynecology Department of SHDMU under the leadership of President Liu throughout the entire journey of Toumai^® adoption, robotic technique training and clinical surgery implementation. We are looking forward to a deeper and long-term cooperation in the future, leveraging the training resources and product R&D advantages of MicroPort^® MedBot^® in high-end medical arena to help with the rapid development of domestic robots, while providing hospitals with more advanced and affordable medical technology and solutions.”

On January 11^th, 2023, the team of Director Jun Wang completed the total hysterectomy and bilateral appendectomy assisted by Toumai^® robot, which added up to 50 cases of surgeries done by Toumai^® at OB Center of SHDMU. Since September 27^th, 2022 when MicroPort^® Toumai^® was adopted by the team of Gynecology Department I of SHDMU after strict examination and medical verification procedures, teams of Director Jun Wang and Prof. Shichao Han had overcome the pandemic setbacks and completed 50 cases of gynecological surgeries with high standards and quality in a little more than 3 months, covering all gynecologic surgical procedures including those for three major malignant tumors. It truly reflects the strong combination of the teams’ superb skills and the product strength of Toumai^® robot.

Among the 50 cases of gynecologic surgeries done by SHDMU, there are many procedures including myomectomy, bilateral appendectomy, comprehensive staging surgery for endometrial carcinoma, malignant hysterectomy, total hysterectomy + bilateral appendectomy, salpingectomy, ovarian cyst elimination, where the first domestic Toumai^® robot-assisted comprehensive staging surgery for endometrial carcinoma (high-level abdominal aortic lymph node resection at the left renal vein level), C2 type extensive hysterectomy for cervical cancer, and comprehensive staging surgery for early ovarian cancer, etc., are all highly challenged surgeries and known as the “ceiling” in gynecological oncology.

In these 3 highly challenged surgeries, with years of superb surgical skills in gynecological oncology as well as tacit team cooperation and the assistance of smooth operating system during surgery and the high-definition vision provided by Toumai^®, Director Jun Wang achieved precise handling in dissection, separation and suturing, completing the surgeries almost without bleeding, and the patients all recovered well after surgery.

On January 7th, the second Gynecological Robotic Surgery Xinghai Forum was held online, which was sponsored by the Beijing Medical Award Foundation and the Gynecological Oncology and Tumor Cytology Special Committee of the Liaoning Provincial Society of Cell Biology, and hosted by the Second Hospital of Dalian Medical University. The forum gathered experts and peers from gynecological fields across the country and attracted over a thousand online viewers during peak hours. Invited speakers shared their latest achievements in clinical research and theoretical learning in gynecological surgery, contributing their wisdom to the high-quality and minimally invasive development of the gynecological surgery industry.

MicroPort^® Toumai^® robot made their debut at the forum. Director Jun Wang and Prof. Shichao Han from SHDMU introduced the conduct of gynecological malignant tumor surgery and the progress of robot clinical applications through special lectures, bringing advanced scientific research and clinical experience to the attending experts. At the same time, the excellent performance of Toumai^® robots in assisting conventional and difficult gynecological tumor surgery was highlighted.

During the Toumai^® satellite session, Prof. Shichao Han from SHDMU presented a special sharing titled “Application of Robot Integrated Double Docking in Gynecological Malignant Tumor Surgery”, giving a professional, rigorous, and exciting sharing from three aspects: the current clinical progress of Toumai^®, the composition and functional highlights of Toumai^®, and application of Toumai^® robot in gynecology.

Prof. Shichao Han stated that, Toumai^® is now able to perform various gynecologic surgeries, including treatment for benign tumors, malignant tumors, endometriosis and other gynecologic surgeries. What Toumai^® impressed Prof. Shichao Han the most is that the developer of Toumai^® robot attaches great importance to R&D and technological optimization, and pays close attention to feedback and suggestions from clinicians.

From October 11, 2021 to January 22, 2022, multidisciplinary and multicenter clinical enrollment for Toumai^® was completed, making it the first domestic laparoscopic surgical robot that covers important and complex surgical procedures in the fields of thoracic, abdominal, and pelvic cavity. The gynecological clinical registry trial for Toumai^® was also completed on January 14, 2022, making it the first domestic laparoscopic surgical robot that completed the case enrollments for clinical registry trial in the gynecology.

As to the advantages of Toumai^® robot, Prof. Shichao Han recognized its four advantages, i.e., safety perception, precision and flexibility, stereoscopic reality, and strong adaptability. He pointed out that the operating system of Toumai^® robot gave the physicians peace of mind during surgery. In addition, the leading advantage of Toumai^® robot in 5G remote surgery was also emphasized at the forum. Based on 5G remote technology, it can achieve remote surgical guidance, demonstration, surgery, etc. for medical consortium hospitals, facilitating the delivery of high-quality resources and advanced technology assistance to county-level hospitals. Prof. Shichao Han stated that he was expecting gynecology related 5G surgery could be conducted as soon as possible in the gynecological centers in Northeast China, down-distributing the top technology of the expert team to the surrounding areas and benefiting patients in the region.

Prof. Shichao Han demonstrated the application of Toumai^® surgical robot in the OB Departments of SHDMU through surgical video clips. The first case of ovarian endometriosis oophorectomy presented was completed by a team of young physicians born in 1990s. Prof. Shichao Han stressed that the entire surgical process was smooth, precisely verifying the advantages of Toumai^®, i.e., enabling the physicians that had never operated imported surgical robot to easily handle the equipment through systematic training and to complete the process of cyst removal and suturing.

In the case study of myomectomy, Prof. Shichao Han stated that Toumai^® was almost identical to those imported robots in terms of user experience, and it would be more convenient in handling Double Docking than the imported robots. If upper abdominal surgery is required after pelvic surgery, there is no need to move the entire operating system, but to simply rotate upper arm and suspension disc for 180°. It greatly reduces the complexity of assistant operation and shortens the surgical time.

In the retrograde abdominal aortic lymph and adipose tissue resection surgery for endometrial carcinoma, Director Jun Wang's superb skills combined with the advantages of Toumai^® instrument can achieve almost bloodless operation. As a national brand, Toumai^® is worthy of recognition for its product strength.

Prof. Shichao Han mentioned that truly perfect surgical instruments should be able to facilitate physicians rather than relying on physicians’ surgical skills and rich experience to make up for its defects, which was true of the system functions of Toumai^®. In terms of assisting operators, liberating assistants, and benefiting patients, it is truly practicing their slogan of “eliminate difficult surgery around the world”.

Director Jun Wang presented a special lecture on the core topic of “how to complete a high-quality gynecological malignant tumor surgery”. He explained and discussed it from four aspects: the embryonic membrane anatomy concept, how to standardize the surgical resection range, how to make good use of the technical advantages of robotic laparoscopic surgery, and the guidance of experienced physicians.

The key points of the lecture started from the principle of embryonic membrane anatomy, and progressed to in-depth discussion around how membrane dissection based on the concept of embryogenesis would achieve tumor free surgical results while avoiding patient injury. The combination of membrane dissection guidance and robot operating systems is emphasized to explore standardized surgical operation with regularity, which helps to promote the effectiveness, safety, and standardization of surgery, shorten the learning curve for doctors, and improve patient prognosis.

Through case analysis, Director Jun Wang shared many methods of surgical practice, including the position of the gap between the surrounding mesentery of different organs, how to more accurately find the gap and determine the approach during surgery, and how to confirm the surgical resection range for different tumor surgeries. By presenting Toumai^® robot-assisted lymph node dissection in the abdominal aortic site, Director Jun Wang demonstrated the exposure of the resection range of the abdominal main area during surgery, as well as the resection range of the surface area of the abdominal main and inferior lumen, the head side area of the inferior mesenteric artery, and the tail side area of the inferior mesenteric artery.

Based on combination of membrane anatomy concept with robotic system, and relying on an enlarged surgical FOV and a flexible wrist system, Director Jun Wang summarized a standardized surgical path and method: forming tension between tissues through adversarial traction; using the fascial fusion gap as the surgical pathway, energy instruments are used for sharp bloodless dissection, ultimately completing organ resection while maintaining the integrity of the organ fascia, which is particularly suitable for organ resection in the submicroscopic FOV. In this way could achieve maximum protection for adjacent structures and organs and minimize traumatic stress on the body.

Combining the concept of membrane dissection with the assistance of Toumai^® robotic system functions could result in safer and more standardized surgical operations, shorter learning curve, fewer patient injuries and delayed recurrence, and stronger protection for patient prognosis.

Marveling at the rapid development, stable and powerful functions of robots made in China, as well as the smooth handling of instruments by physicians, Director Jun Wang stated that Toumai^® was fully capable of assisting doctors in completing standard surgeries. The advantages of robot skills, membrane anatomy concept, standardized scope of gynecological tumors, and highly skilled doctors, all of which should be combined to ensure successful surgery and benefit more patients.

The debut of Toumai^® robot on in the gynecological specialty forum and the successful completion of 50 cases of gynecologic surgeries have made it clear that Toumai^® robot is becoming increasingly proficient in gynecological surgeries. As of now, Toumai^® robot has been clinically validated and personally recognized by physicians in multiple departments such as gynecology, urology, hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery, thoracic surgery, and gastrointestinal surgery. A huge tree that fills ones’ arms grows from a tiny seedling; a nine-storied tower rises from a heap of earth. With the continuous promotion of the clinical application of Toumai^® robot in hospitals across the country, we will refine better products, making products that are close to clinical practice and serve the clinical needs, truly benefiting the medical and patient population, and fulfilling the original intention of MicroPort^® MedBot^® - to “eliminate difficult surgery around the world”.