CHA Gangnam Medical Center강남차병원 said Tuesday that it had completed 500 cases of robotic surgery in its department of obstetrics and gynecology in the shorter time than other hospitals.

The university hospital’s Robotic Surgery Center conducted its 500th OB-GYN surgery using the “da Vinci Si Surgical System” on May 16, one year and 11 months after its first application of the technology, it said, adding that it is the only hospital in Korea that performed 500 surgeries in such a short time.

Seong Seok-ju, head of CHA Gangnam Medical Center, CHA University Robotic Surgery Center, stands in front of the da Vinci Si Surgical System used to perform robotic surgery in the hospital’s OB-GYN department.

Nearly nine out of 10 women who had undergone surgery retained their uterus and fertility while reporting no side effects, the hospital said, stressing that it completed all operations from beginning to end, not switching over to open or laparoscopic surgery in any case.

Surgeries for uterine myoma (uterine leiomyomas), a benign smooth muscle tumor of the uterus, accounted 59.4 percent (297 cases), and hysterectomies took up 13.4 percent. It also performed female reproductive cancer surgeries and tubal microsurgeries.

The hospital also performed the most uterine myoma surgeries nationwide, boasting the completion of 165 such surgeries and surpassing the number carried out at large general hospitals with robotic technology.

Robotic surgery provides better aesthetic results with fewer scars helping maintain the patient’s health status and fertility. CHA University also offers patients who are struggling with infertility or planning for children to get treatment at its infertility clinic, the hospital said.

“We were able to achieve synergy through the hospital’s one-stop treatment process, skilled medical professionals, and cutting-edge technology,” said Seong Seok-ju성석주, head of CHA Gangnam Medical Center, Cha University Robotic Surgery Center. “We will continue to offer high-quality health care services so that our patients’ trust in CHA can grow,”

The medical center is a branch of CHA University, which started as a small neighborhood OB-GYN clinic in 1986 and grew into one of the most cutting-edge hospitals in the country. The hospital was the first to open an egg bank in the U.S. in 2002 after establishing the country’s first medical export in the form of CHA-Columbia Infertility Clinic in 1999 by partnering with the Ivy League university. The hospital also invented the method of freezing vitrified eggs in 1998, establishing themselves as the country’s best infertility hospital, it said.

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