World's First Intercontinental Remote Gynecologic Tumor Surgery Successfully Performed at Zhejiang University Women's Hospital

Background

Zhejiang University Women's Hospital has been developing expertise in remote robotic surgery. In May 2026, Professor Wang Hui, the hospital's Party Secretary and a gynecologic oncologist, performed a remote robotic procedure on a patient with complex uterine fibroids located 350 kilometers away in Chuzhou, Anhui Province. That operation used a domestic surgical robot over a dedicated network with reported latency of 22 milliseconds.

What was achieved

On October 21, 2026, Professor Wang Hui, while visiting Italy at the invitation of MOVI Medical Group, performed what sources report as the world's first intercontinental remote gynecologic tumor surgery. Operating from a console at the T. Mohwinckel robot training center in Milan, approximately 10,000 kilometers from the patient, he remotely controlled a surgical robot at the hospital's Yuhang campus in Hangzhou.

The patient had endometrial cancer complicated by severe pelvic adhesions resulting from a laparoscopic bilateral salpingectomy for hydrosalpinx performed at the same hospital 15 years earlier. The multidisciplinary team in Hangzhou supported the case. The procedure involved extrafascial total hysterectomy, bilateral oophorectomy, sentinel lymph node biopsy, and lysis of dense adhesions involving bowel and ureter. It was completed in under three hours with approximately 50 ml of blood loss. Communication was stable with no reported delay in robotic arm response. The patient recovered well, was transferred to the gynecologic ward at Yuhang campus, and was discharged five days postoperatively.

How it works

In remote robotic surgery, also known as telesurgery, the operating surgeon sits at a master console equipped with hand controls and a high-definition stereoscopic viewer that provides a magnified three-dimensional view of the surgical field. Hand and finger movements at the console are digitized and transmitted in real time over a high-bandwidth, low-latency dedicated communication network to a patient-side robotic cart.

This cart holds four robotic arms in this case: one or more with an endoscope for visualization and others with surgical instruments. The arms replicate the surgeon's motions with seven degrees of freedom similar to a human wrist, tremor filtration, and motion scaling for precision. This setup enables minimally invasive surgery through small incisions even when the surgeon is on another continent. In the distorted anatomy created by long-standing dense adhesions, the technology allowed careful dissection to protect critical structures such as vessels and ureters while completing the tumor resection and staging elements. A local surgical team at the patient site manages setup, emergency intervention if needed, and assists throughout.

What it means for international patients

The hospital maintains an International Medical Center with dedicated outpatient services available at its Hubin, Qianjiang, and Yuhang campuses. It offers an international service hotline, multilingual support, and full-process services from appointment through settlement for overseas patients. The hospital has established cooperative relationships with medical institutions in multiple countries and participates in international academic exchanges.

This intercontinental telesurgery demonstrates the hospital's technical infrastructure and experience with complex gynecologic oncology cases using robotic assistance. International patients considering care for gynecologic tumors or related conditions at the facility should contact the hospital's International Medical Center or Affairs Office directly to confirm current eligibility criteria, availability of specific techniques, required documentation, and appointment procedures.

About the hospital

The Women's Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University (also known as Zhejiang University Women's Hospital or WHZJU) is located in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. Founded in 1951, it is a tertiary specialized hospital affiliated with Zhejiang University School of Medicine, with 1,120 beds and approximately 2,011 staff members, including nearly 600 physicians and over 800 nurses. It serves more than 500,000 patients annually and functions as a nationally recognized referral center for complex cases in obstetrics, gynecology, gynecologic oncology, reproductive endocrinology, neonatology, and breast surgery.

Its Department of Gynecologic Oncology is a provincial key discipline responsible for standardized diagnosis and treatment of cervical, endometrial, and ovarian cancers among others. The hospital has extensive experience in minimally invasive and robotic-assisted gynecologic procedures, including thousands of cases using systems such as Da Vinci. It operates three main campuses and maintains an International Medical Center to support overseas patients alongside its clinical, teaching, and research activities.