REVO

MAR 13, 2018

The first thing that comes to mind when we think of surgical robotics is ‘Da Vinci’ by Intuitive. Da Vinci robot which was first adopted in Korea by Yonsei University Severance Hospital in 2005 and has been upgraded continuously since then. Currently, we are expecting the launch of Da Vinci SP which enables ‘single port’ (multiple procedures through one incision’). 

So far, Da Vinci has monopolized the field of surgical robotics for over 10 years. However, as various types of surgical robotics are expected to be launched across the world from this year, fierce competition with Da Vinci is expected. 

Amidst such, ‘Revo-i’, a laparoscopic surgical robot, recently developed by Yonsei Severance Hospital’s medical team, Samsung Electronics, KAIST and a semi-conductor company Mereecompany jointly with the proactive support of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is expecting to be launched in mid-March. Above all, this surgical robot has been developed solely with domestic medical technology, gaining high interest.

The surgical robot is an equipment which is controlled remotely by a doctor seated at the external console through 3D imaging and controller after 2~4 holes are made on the patient’s body to insert surgical camera and robot arm into the body. It is widely used in prostate and thyroid cancer surgeries. 

It has been confirmed that the performance of Revo-i was not significantly different when compared to the result of surgery using Da Vinci. It has demonstrated to be in a level equivalent to ‘Da Vinci Si’ which was launched in August 2009 and is expected to be upgraded consistently. Prof. Koon Ho Rha, urologist at Yonsei Severance Hospital who had been in charge of clinical researches of Revo-i stated that “It has been investigated that it (Revo-i) is in similar standard with Da Vinci from the aspects of recovery progress, satisfaction level, effectiveness, safety and the like in patients who have received a surgery” and that “The Korean robot, Revi-I can be used in all abdominal surgeries”.

The interest in Revo-i is gaining increasing attention from the Korean hospitals as well. In case of Da Vinci, the high cost of robotic surgery has ceaselessly been criticized across the world. The price of Da Vinci is KRW 2.5 ~ 3 billion per unit. In addition, the maintenance cost that is claimed every year by Intuitive surpasses KRW 230 million per unit. Moreover, the high-end robot arm must be replaced after approximately 10 uses. Following Intuitive’s recommended number of uses for parts requires a lot of costs. Thus, the surgical robot market hopes that ‘Revo-i would help reduce the burden of patients by reducing the cost of surgical robot and surgery cost’.

Meanwhile, Europe’s emerging companies, such as Cambridge Medical Robotics and Avatera, Verb Surgical, a joint venture between Johnson & Johnson and Google as well as America’s major medical device companies such as Medtronic are expecting to launch surgical robots so there could be big changes in the surgical robot market that has been monopolized by Da Vinci. 

There have been over 877,000 cases of robot surgeries around the world as of last year and the surgical robot market has grown by 12% every year over the past 5 years. In Korea, over 17,000 robot surgeries have been performed in the same year. The market is growing by more than 15% a year and the robot surgeries are expected to gradually expand in the future. 

Medical reporter Lee Jin Han / likeday@donga.com