On November 27th, the team led by Academician Dong Jiahong from Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital successfully performed extracorporeal hepatectomy and autologous liver in situ replantation on a patient with recurrent end-stage hepatic echinococcosis. The surgery was live-streamed globally at the 37th Italian Congress of Digestive Surgery and was simultaneously rebroadcast by domestic media. The total number of viewers exceeded 5 million, setting a world record for the attention paid to live surgical broadcasts and demonstrating the international influence of China's precision surgery.
The patient is from Guoluo, Qinghai Province. She has undergone liver resection twice. This time, the recurrent lesion is closely attached to the heart and key blood vessels, and the risk of conventional surgery is extremely high. The team led by Dong Jiahong decided to adopt extracorporeal hepatectomy and replantation: the liver was completely removed from the body, and the lesion was thoroughly removed and the blood vessels reconstructed in a low-temperature perfusion and bloodless environment, and then the healthy liver was implanted back into the body. This surgical procedure has extremely high requirements for team skills and multidisciplinary collaboration.
The success of the surgery relies on the comprehensive application of the precision surgical paradigm. The team adopted the artificial intelligence surgical planning system jointly developed with the team of Academician You Zheng from Tsinghua University. Before the operation, three-dimensional reconstruction and surgical simulation were completed, achieving a leap from "empirical exploration" to "scientific planning". Dong Jiahong stated that the actual operation was highly consistent with the contingency plan, demonstrating the predictability and controllability of precision surgery.
Multidisciplinary collaboration is the cornerstone of a successful surgery. The anesthesiology team precisely managed the operation in stages during the operation to ensure its smooth progress. The surgical team operated smoothly, the free liver suffered nearly zero blood loss, and the vascular reconstruction was stable and rapid. The entire operation was smooth and fluid, and the patient's vital signs remained stable throughout.
During the live broadcast, many recovered patients who had undergone similar surgeries shared their new life stories through live connections: some of them devoted themselves to the cultural and tourism industry, some enjoyed retirement trips, and even some teenagers returned to the football field and won championships. Their smiles became the warmest footnote to this technology.
The operation lasted for 9 hours and received high praise from international experts. Professor Giorgio Plazzini, the president of the Italian Society of Digestive Surgery, praised the superb technique and teamwork demonstrated in the surgery, saying it had a "textbook-level demonstration effect". Lu Qian, the vice president of Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital, said that Chinese surgery is moving towards the center of the world stage with a composed and confident attitude.
It is reported that Tsinghua Changgung Hospital performs more than ten such surgeries on average each year. Academician Dong Jiahong hopes to showcase the strength of China's precision surgical system in dealing with complex and critical diseases to the world through live streaming, and promote global surgical technology exchanges and progress.