Hallym University Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital

Dr. Hanbaro Kim, Clinical Assistant Professor of General Surgery and Digestive Disease Center at Hallym University Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital, successfully performed laparoscopic hepatectomy on the right side of the liver for a liver cancer patient on April 18, 2019. The surgery is known as one of the most difficult surgeries in the field.

Mr. Nam, a sixty-two-year-old patient with stage-two liver cancer, was diagnosed as having a tumor diameter of 6cm on the right part of the liver in March 2019. Abnormal liver somatic index in blood test turned out to be a cancer.

But thanks to minimally invasive surgery he had, he could walk and eat on the day after surgery. Six days later, he could leave the hospital.

“Mr. Nam’s surgery was considered impossible because his liver was too small, but we made it possible by reducing the size of the tumor through multidisciplinary care and enlarging the liver,” said Dr. Kim. “Laparoscopic surgery generally makes swift recovery and causes less pain. The tumor has been completely removed, and Mr. Nam is highly satisfied with the result,” He added.

“Multidisciplinary care is a term used to describe both members of different professions working together as health care teams and ways in which health care teams collaborate. In this way, patients can receive high-quality customized care. Hallym University Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital is strengthening its system to provide patients with the best medical service in Korea,” said Dr. Dong Joon Kim, Professor and Chief of Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Hallym University Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital.

Hallym University Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital has been employing a multidisciplinary team consisting of the department of surgery, gastroenterology, and radiology to treat the cancer patients since 2017. The multidisciplinary approach has been shown to be an effective tool for liver cancer treatment options such as Transarterial Chemoembolization (TACE), surgical operation, radiotherapy, liver transplantation, and target therapy, all of which are relatively complicated compared to other types of cancer treatments.

By Yongjae Kim, Int’l Cooperation Team, HUMC (yongjae@hallym.or.kr)