For the first time in Europe, three tele-robotic operations have been carried out across national and continental borders. The interventions were presented on November 14 during the 15th Symposium of the German Society for Robot-Assisted Urology (DRUS 2025) at the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce. From the Asklepios Clinic in Altona, foreign urologists used consoles and robotic systems to control patients in Beijing, Aalst in Belgium and Madrid.

A Chinese urologist performed a radical prostatectomy in Beijing, a Belgian colleague performed a radical prostatectomy in Aalst, and a Spanish expert performed a tumor nephrectomy in Madrid. All operations were carried out simultaneously via a stable 5G network. Congress President Prof. Christian Wülfing, Chief Physician of Urology at the Asklepios Clinic Altona, described this as a milestone in surgery that shows that complex procedures over thousands of kilometres are possible safely and in real time.

Telerobotics is made possible by modern fiber optic and cellular infrastructure, with 5G networks ensuring lag-free transmission. The surgeries presented were the first to use Chinese systems, including Edge-Medical’s EDGE system and Microport’s TOUMAI system, comparable to established Da Vinci robots. The procedures were developed in cooperation with partner clinics in Beijing, Madrid and Aalst.

This technology could make highly specialized operations available in regions with a shortage of skilled workers and promote international cooperation and training. As part of another live operation from the St. Antonius-Hospital Gronau, the Da Vinci 5 system from Intuitive was presented, which offers instruments with a sense of touch for haptic feedback.

The two-day congress under the motto Next Level – Robotic Urology and Beyond brought together around 400 experts from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain and China. In addition to the operations, ethical and legal aspects of telerobotics were discussed, including data security, liability and cross-border responsibility, as well as opportunities through artificial intelligence and digital networking.

Further information and the programme are available at drus2025.dgru.de.

Editor: X-Press Journalistenbüro GbR

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