A joint team from China and France performs the surgery remotely. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The Xiamen Cardiovascular Hospital Xiamen University has achieved a groundbreaking milestone by performing the world's first cross-border, robot-assisted transcatheter heart valve intervention.

This achievement marks a new era in cardiovascular intervention, highlighting the integration of advanced technology and global collaboration.

Professor Wang Yan, president of the Xiamen Cardiovascular Hospital, conducted the operation remotely from the University Hospital of Bordeaux in France, working alongside Professor Lionel Leroux with Professor Thomas Modine providing online guidance throughout.

The surgeons used a remote-control platform to operate the robotic system, which was in a catheterization lab at the Xiamen Cardiovascular Hospital. The procedure, a robot-assisted transcatheter mitral valve repair (TEER), was completed in about one hour.

Professor Wang operates the robot controller in the University Hospital of Bordeaux. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The operation achieved near-perfect results, with almost zero mitral regurgitation post-surgery. The patient has now fully recovered and been discharged.

The robot in the catheterization lab at the Xiamen Cardiovascular Hospital precisely performs the mitral valve repair surgery. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The robotic transcatheter heart intervention system used in this surgery was independently developed by the Xiamen Cardiovascular Hospital and Shanghai Shujike Medical Technology Co.

Since using this system to perform the world's first robot-assisted transcatheter mitral valve repair in 2023, the Xiamen Cardiovascular Hospital has conducted over 20 clinical applications with it.