Researchers at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) have disclosed the results of a clinical trial involving the world’s first robotic living-donor liver transplant, a procedure executed at Queen Mary Hospital as part of a pioneering microsurgery programme. Since June 2025, surgeons have completed 48 such operations, with no long-term or post-operative complications reported, thereby underscoring the potential of this technology to revolutionise transplant surgery. Microsurgery, which necessitates operating under high-powered magnification on structures as fine as 0.1 millimetres, is routinely employed to anastomoseanastomose/əˈnæstəmoʊz/L3（医）吻合，连接（血管、淋巴管等）to connect or join two tubular structures, such as blood vessels or lymphatic vessels, surgically to allow flow between them blood vessels, lymphatic vessels, and nerves, though it is notoriously demanding.
Dr Velda Chow Ling-yu, a clinical associate professor at HKU’s department of surgery, explained that the principal impedimentimpediment/ɪmˈpɛdɪmənt/L3障碍，妨碍（尤指进展或活动）a hindrance or obstruction that prevents or delays progress or movement in conventional microsurgery is hand tremor, which is exacerbatedexacerbated/ɪɡˈzæsərbeɪtɪd/L3加剧，使恶化made worse or more severe (a problem, situation, or condition) by stress or fatigue, and that surgeons must often maintain fixed, strained postures for protracted periods. To circumventcircumvent/ˌsɜːrkəmˈvɛnt/L3规避，绕过（困难、限制等）to find a way around an obstacle or limitation, often through clever or strategic means these limitations, the team initiated a robot-assisted microsurgery trial approximately one year ago, deploying a system whereby the surgeon sits in an ergonomic chair and manipulates robotic arms via joystick-like controllers, while wearing 3D goggles to obtain a highly magnified, three-dimensional view of the operative field. The system translates hand movements into precise real-time actions, filtering out tremors to ensure stability, which not only enhances precision but also potentially shortens the steep learning curve traditionally associated with microsurgery.
Notwithstanding the technical triumphs, Professor Albert Chan Chi-yan, director of the hospital’s liver transplant centre, highlighted a formidable challenge: reconnecting the hepatic artery, which has a diameter of merely one to two millimetres. Should this arterial connection become occluded, the new liver would fail, precipitating liver failure and necessitating a repeat transplant—an option not invariably available to patients. Chan asserted that the robotic system’s stitch-by-stitch precision mitigates the risk of arterial blockage, thereby augmenting the surgery’s success rate, and he expressed an ambition to integrate robotic microsurgery into routine liver transplants at public hospitals, with future applications including bile duct reconstruction.
Dr Chow noted that analogous robotic systems employed in Western medical centres have already demonstrated enhanced precision and reduced complications, although further data are requisite to quantify the benefits definitively. The team’s findings, published on Wednesday, suggest that such technology could alleviate surgical waiting lists by accelerating training efficiency, given that surgeons can master the technique more rapidly when freed from the exigencies of tremor control and awkward positioning. Consequently, the advent of robot-assisted microsurgery portendsportends/pɔːrˈtɛndz/L3预示，是……的征兆to signify or indicate something (often significant or ominous) that is about to happen a paradigm shift in hepatobiliary surgery, merging the dexterity of human expertise with the unwavering accuracy of machines.
