China completes remote surgery for the first time through satellite

According to the website of Hong Kong's South China Morning Post on January 3rd, China recently conducted the world's first satellite based ultra remote surgery

According to the report of CCTV on January 1, doctors from the General Hospital of the Chinese People's Liberation Army used the Asia Pacific 6D communication satellite 36000 kilometers away from the earth to perform five remote operations in Lhasa, Xizang, Dali, Yunnan and Sanya, Hainan

The patient located in Beijing underwent liver, gallbladder, and pancreatic surgery with the help of a surgical robot system developed domestically in China. According to reports, the patient recovered and was discharged the day after the surgery

According to CCTV, the bidirectional transmission distance of data for each precise movement during the surgery is nearly 150000 kilometers, which is the first time in China and internationally

According to CCTV, this series of remote liver, gallbladder, and pancreatic surgeries has crossed high altitudes and straits, verifying the feasibility, safety, and effectiveness of relying on China's independently developed communication technology and combining it with robotic surgical systems to carry out difficult and complex remote surgeries. It has become a major breakthrough in the combination of medical technology and information technology, providing broad space for the enrichment and expansion of the trauma treatment system in the future

According to reports, the Asia Pacific 6D communication satellite was launched in 2020 and is a high-throughput broadband communication satellite in geostationary orbit. Although the Asia Pacific 6D communication satellite can cover about one-third of the Earth's surface from geostationary orbit, its coverage is too wide and requires data transmission over ultra long distances, which poses challenges for real-time applications such as remote surgery

In order to meet these challenges, Professor Liu Rong of the General Hospital of the Chinese People's Liberation Army led the establishment of an interdisciplinary expert team composed of hospitals, satellite operators and manufacturers. The team overcame the problems of communication link optimization, data classification service quality and flow control, and achieved the satellite communication link delay approaching the physical limit. Professor Liu Rong performed the first surgery in this series from Lhasa, removing a liver tumor for a patient in Beijing

The report states that these breakthrough surgeries will also enable remote surgery to truly cross the threshold of comprehensive normalization and commercial clinical practice, and achieve seamless coverage worldwide, in all regions, and 24/7

Compared with ground infrastructure, satellite communication technology has significant advantages in remote surgery, as it is not limited by geographical time and space, has wider coverage, higher availability, and faster deployment speed