Chinese surgeons perform surgery on patient 5,000km away via satellite
What's the story
In a major breakthrough, Chinese surgeons have successfully performed robotic surgeries from over 5,000km away using satellite technology. The historic feat was achieved by a team led by Professor Rong Liu of the PLA General Hospital. They conducted complex liver surgeries on two patients in Beijing while operating from an advanced center in Lhasa.
Surgical innovation
Breaks barriers of traditional 5G telesurgery
This achievement marks the first time such long-distance procedures have been performed using satellite communication. It solves a major problem of providing surgical care to remote, underserved, or disaster-stricken areas. Traditional 5G telesurgery is limited by distance and infrastructure, usually restricted to 5,000km and dependent on terrestrial networks.
Communication hurdles
Innovations to tackle satellite communication challenges
While satellite communication is global, it comes with high latency—often exceeding 600 milliseconds, far beyond the safe limit of 200ms needed for surgical precision. Prof. Liu's team tackled the challenge with three innovations: Adaptive Latency Compensation kept arm error to 0.32 mm under 500 ms delay; Dual-Link Redundancy switched to 5G within milliseconds if satellite failed; and Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation cut bandwidth use by half while preserving full HD video.
Medical advancement
Patients treated successfully, procedures expand surgical robots' reach
The team operated via the Apstar-6D satellite, which is 36,000km above Earth. They successfully treated a 68-year-old liver cancer patient and a 56-year-old with hepatic hemangioma in surgeries that lasted between 105 and 124 minutes each. Both patients were discharged within 24 hours, meeting recovery benchmarks similar to in-person procedures. This breakthrough expands the reach of surgical robots from 5,000km to over 150,000km—enabling life-saving operations in battlefields or isolated areas where traditional medical access is impossible.