Hallym University Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital

Hallym University Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital opened the nation’s first Mako Robot Training Center on December 14 to educate orthopedic surgeons in Korea and abroad on joint replacement surgical skills.

Mako robot is an advanced technology of Stryker, the multinational medical technology company, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration(FDA) and developed for partial and total knee replacements as well as total hip replacements. The robot helps improve the accuracy of joint replacement surgery and form a safe zone to reduce the damage to other areas other than the surgical area. It enables surgeons to make the surgical incision smaller so that the blood loss is minimal and patients could experience less pain and fast recovery after surgery.

Kangnam hospital adopted the Mako Robot last November. With the adoption of robots, orthopedic surgeons including Professors Jihyo Hwang and Professor Joong Il Kim have been performing more accurate hip and knee replacement surgeries.

“When we use Mako robot on hip joint replacement, we can put the artificial joint more accurately on the location where desired, and the length of legs can be measured more specifically. It makes both physicians and patients more satisfied,” said Professor Hwang.

The hospital plans to educate orthopedic surgeons in Korea and from abroad on robotic surgical skills through various robot-based surgical programs.

Professor Kim who also serves as education program director said, “Our ultimate goal is to provide the most practical training program for physicians so that they could improve their surgical skills and, more importantly, we could improve the quality of life of our patients.”

“With the adoption of the cutting-edge robotic surgical system, our skillful doctors will do our best to provide our patients with a more safe and high-quality surgical environment,” said Hospital Director Young Goo Lee.

By Jonghun Im, Int’l Cooperation Team, HUMC (imjonghun@hallym.or.kr)