Hong Kong surgeons have performed the world’s first robotic living-donor liver transplant as part of a clinical trial at Queen Mary Hospital.
The University of Hong Kong team shared the results on Wednesday. Surgeons completed 48 robot-assisted procedures since June 2025 with no long-term or post-operative complications.
Dr Velda Chow Ling-yu, a clinical associate professor at the HKU Medical School’s Department of Surgery, said the technology aimed to overcome the limitations of conventional microsurgery.
“The biggest difficulty of microsurgery is hand tremors, which can worsen if the surgeon operates under stress or fatigue,” she said at a press briefing. “Surgeons also often need to maintain fixed, strained positions for long periods to align with the microscope and patient.”
