Writing
He King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (KFSHRC) has successfully completed the first fully robotic left liver lobe transplant from a living donor. This transplant has been led by professor Dieter Broeringexecutive director of the Organ Transplant Center of Excellence. It is an open door to increase surgical precision and improve recovery times and safety in robotic liver transplantation. This expands the options for a greater number of patients around the world.
To date, living donor liver transplants have been mostly limited to right lobe grafts, due to the complexity of the procedure in the left lobe. However, the use of robotic technology in left liver lobe transplants has opened new hope for those patients who were previously considered unsuitable for minimally invasive transplant surgery, especially due to their unique anatomical characteristics.
It is an open door to increase surgical precision and improve recovery times and safety in robotic liver transplantation
This robotic liver transplant was successfully carried out in two patients: a 26-year-old with end-stage liver disease caused by autoimmune hepatitis, and a 48-year-old with primary biliary cirrhosis. Both procedures were performed using the KFSHRC’s state-of-the-art robotic system. This allowed for unprecedented surgical precision. This robotic system has facilitated superior visualization of the surgical area and has contributed to minimizing blood loss and ICU hospitalization time, which in both cases was reduced to only 2-4 days.
In 2023, KFSHRC performed the world’s first fully robotic liver transplant from a living donor, followed by 31 successful fully robotic liver transplants. Internationally, KFSHRC has been ranked the best medical center in the Middle East and Africa and 20th in the world within the list of top 250 Academic Medical Centers, according to Brand Finance’s 2024 rankings. In addition, it has been recognized by Newsweek magazine as one of the Best Smart Hospitals in the world for 2025. With these achievements, KFSHRC reaffirms its commitment to medical innovation and the advancement of robotic treatments for the benefit of its patients.
