A doctor at Ningbo No 6 Hospital tries his hand at the domestically developed microsurgery robot. [Photo/tidenews.com.cn]

A microsurgery procedure aided by a domestically developed surgical robot was successfully performed in Ningbo city, East China's Zhejiang province, earlier this month.

On July 7, doctors confirmed good blood flow in the transplanted skin flap of the patient, proving the success of the pioneering operation.

The procedure was China's second and Zhejiang's first to use a homegrown microsurgery robot for perforator flap vascular anastomosis.

The patient, a 61-year-old woman, had suffered a severe crush injury on her right hand. Facing challenges such as ultra-fine blood vessel suturing and human hand tremors, doctors at Ningbo No 6 Hospital decided to use the microsurgery robot to aid the surgery.

Jointly developed by leading domestic hospitals and medical robotics companies, the microsurgery robot is the first of its kind to enter clinical trials in China. It can effectively avoid the unavoidable micro-tremor of human hands and improve an operation's accuracy to the submillimeter level.

Surgeons used a high-definition 3D microscope and a bionic robotic arm with dynamic tremor control to connect vessels just 0.5 millimeter in diameter.

"Microsurgery is like the Qomolangma of reconstructive surgery, especially in submillimeter vascular anastomosis operations," said Wang Xin, president of Ningbo No 6 Hospital.

"This domestically developed robot is like having a pair of 'super steady hands' which enable precise suturing on hair-thin vessels with submillimeter accuracy," Wang added.

He noted that this will not only greatly enhance the safety of complex reconstruction surgeries, but also promote standardization and replicability of procedures — allowing advanced techniques to benefit more patients.