HKUMed pioneers robot-assisted living-donor liver transplant

It addresses the core limitations of the manual technique.

The University of Hong Kong’s (HKUMed) Department of Surgery has performed the world's first robot-assisted living-donor liver transplant.

Since pioneering robot-assisted microsurgeries in 2025, the hospital has completed 48 surgeries, recording zero complications and failed anastomoses across all procedures, it said in a press release.

The hepatic artery in a living-donor transplant is short and small-calibre, and surgeons must suture it deep inside the abdomen whilst contending with cardiac pulsation and graft pressure with every breath.

Under manual conditions, only a handful of microsurgeons globally can perform the anastomosis independently.

The robotic platform addresses the core limitations of manual technique through tremor filtration, motion scaling, and enhanced visualisation.

Its arms provide seven degrees of freedom, allowing access to confined spaces where standard instruments cannot reach.

In the head and neck cancer application, the team repositioned the surgical incision from the visible anterior neck to within the posterior hairline — fully concealing scarring and minimising facial and neck lymphoedema.

Additional applications include reconstructive surgery after tumour removal, lymphatic surgery, and trauma surgery.