Zhejiang University Women's Hospital Completes the World's First Intercontinental Remote Robotic Gynecologic Oncology Surgery

On October 21, 2026, Beijing time, a cross-continental remote robotic surgery spanning Eurasia was successfully completed. The master control console was set up at the T. Mohwinckel Robot Training Center in Milan, Italy, while the patient side was located in the gynecological operating room of the Yuhang Campus of the Women's Hospital School of Medicine Zhejiang University. Professor Wang Hui, Party Secretary of the Women's Hospital School of Medicine Zhejiang University, was invited by the Italian MOVI Medical Group for a visit, during which he remotely performed the surgery from the master console at the center of the surgical training base, carrying out robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery for a patient with endometrial cancer complicated by severe pelvic adhesions. This is the world's first cross-continental remote gynecological oncology surgery. A 15-Year-Old Condition Caused Severe Adhesions; "Cloud-Based" Surgery Breaks Through Anatomical Challenges. The patient who underwent surgery is a woman with endometrial cancer. Fifteen years ago, she had undergone laparoscopic bilateral salpingectomy at the Women's Hospital School of Medicine Zhejiang University for "bilateral pyosalpinx." After more than a decade of tissue repair and changes, extremely extensive severe adhesions had formed inside her pelvis—the rectum and sigmoid colon were densely adherent to the uterus and bilateral ovaries, the normal anatomical structures were blurred, the course of the ureters was severely distorted, and the originally clear anatomical spaces were almost completely closed. For radical surgery for endometrial cancer, such a pelvic condition is a veritable "minefield": vital organs and blood vessels are intricately intertwined, and the slightest deviation during dissection could injure the ureters, major vessels, or intestines, causing fistulas or massive hemorrhage in milder cases and life-threatening consequences in severe cases. Many similar cases ultimately can only be treated with more invasive open surgery, and even then the surgical risk remains high. In response to this complex case, the team of the First Comprehensive Gynecological Ward of the Yuhang Campus attached great importance to it. "The degree of adhesions in this patient makes ordinary laparoscopic operation extremely difficult, and the precision of the robot is exactly what can give full play to its advantages." Director of the department, Chief Physician Wang Yinfeng, organized the team to conduct rigorous preoperative evaluation and discussion. "Although Professor Wang is abroad, the technology can 'reach back to the operating table across thousands of miles,' so the patient does not have to wait and wait." Based on the patient's condition, the expert team of the Women's Hospital School of Medicine Zhejiang University ultimately settled on an "ultra-remote robotic surgery" plan—leveraging the robotic system's high-definition 3D vision, wrist-like flexible bionic robotic arms, and ultra-low-latency ultra-remote communication technology, with Wang Hui operating remotely to break through the difficulties and customize personalized minimally invasive surgery for the patient. Seamless Multidisciplinary Linkage Between Milan and Hangzhou; Blood Loss of Only 50 ml in Conquering a Highly Difficult Surgery. On the day of surgery, Wang Hui, far away at the Joint Robot Training Center in Milan, sat in front of the master console, lightly holding the operating handles with both hands and focusing intently on the high-definition three-dimensional display; in the operating room of the Yuhang Campus of the Women's Hospital School of Medicine Zhejiang University nearly 10,000 kilometers away, four robotic arms hung steadily above the patient's surgical field, their "joints" rotating flexibly and precisely reproducing every subtle movement of the handles. The intercontinental distance and the 6-hour time difference were compressed at that moment into "zero perception." The difficulty of this cross-continental remote surgery came not only from the high demands that complex radical gynecological oncology procedures place on the surgeon's experience, judgment, and fine dissection skills, but also from the need for remote operation and local support to be synchronized and seamlessly connected under cross-continental conditions. To ensure the safety and smooth progress of the surgery, the Women's Hospital School of Medicine Zhejiang University organized a multidisciplinary team to collaborate throughout the process. Multiple preoperative drill rehearsals and network signal debugging provided solid support for the smooth completion of this highly difficult cross-continental remote surgery through full-process, multidisciplinary, and cross-regional coordinated support. "The adhesions in the rectal paravesical space are denser than on imaging." "Switch to curved dissection forceps, release layer by layer along the course of the ureter, and control the depth of dissection." "Adjust arm No. 1, take another look here."... Wang Hui's voice came steadily through the real-time audio and video system as he communicated continuously with the team on site in Hangzhou, his hands operating methodically, performing fine maneuvers within the narrow adhesive space, peeling off layer by layer and releasing the inflammatory tissue adherent around the rectum and ureters like "carving flowers on tofu," ensuring complete resection of the tumor. In less than 3 hours, the surgery was successfully completed. Communication remained stable and smooth throughout, the robotic arms responded without delay, and intraoperative blood loss was only about 50 milliliters—far below the common level for similar open surgeries—with key anatomical structures and blood vessels fully protected. After surgery, the patient was admitted to the First Comprehensive Gynecological Ward of the Yuhang Campus and was discharged smoothly 5 days after surgery. What Can Cross-Thousands-of-Miles "Cloud Surgery" Bring to Ordinary People? A single optical fiber spans Europe and Asia, connecting at one end to an international frontier robot training center and at the other to an ordinary person's operating table. The significance of this cross-continental surgery goes far beyond a "hardcore debut" of technological breakthrough; it also contains the real answer to how future medical care can benefit the public. In the past, when encountering extremely complex conditions, if the chief surgeon happened to be in another location, patients often could not tolerate cross-border transfer and, constrained by multiple factors such as visas, costs, disease stability, and the treatment time window, could only wait passively. The significance of ultra-remote robotic surgery is that it allows top experts' skills to cross mountains and seas in real time: even if the expert is on the other side of Eurasia, they can instantly "return to their post in the cloud" and personally operate on the patient during the golden treatment window, truly realizing "the expert is thousands of miles away, yet diagnosis and treatment are right before the eyes." For ordinary patients, this means more possibilities for accessing top experts without leaving their own cities. Relying on the construction of regional medical centers and the cross-regional medical collaboration system, in the future patients with difficult and severe diseases in remote areas and primary hospitals will not need to travel long distances for referral; they can receive remote diagnosis and treatment and technical guidance from national-level experts at local hospitals, saving time and economic costs while also avoiding the risk of disease deterioration during transfer.