Sungsoo Park

 

Dr. Sungsoo Park’s first visit to Beijing for the 2017 International Gastric Cancer Conference was one of excitement and opportunity. When asked which of the topics being discussed at this year’s conference he was most interested in he said， “The main focus of my visit to IGCC is to discover brand new surgeries and trends of worldwide gastric cancer research.”

 

It is no surprise that Dr. Park would be interested in discovering new trends in surgeries for the treatment of gastric cancer given his experience at the MIS & Robotic Surgery Center at the Korea University Medical Center. “There are many latest developments. Now， more and more surgeons are worried about the patients when making a decision and focus on patient’s satisfaction. But currently we are rapidly moving from the past to the future. So， before going forward to the future， we need to make evidence of what is better for the patients， not for the surgeons themselves，” he boldly stated.

 

Dr. Park developed a report on Current Status of Laparoscopic Reconstructions after Distal Gastrectomy and the Evidences for the Results for this year’s IGCC. In regards to the main content of this report， Dr. Park said， “At this moment we need to revisit the classic operations in the way of both laparoscopic assisted approach and totally laparoscopic approach. I did my evaluation and found unique benefits for unique people. So we need to know exactly what are these things and then we can discuss about it and choose evidence for a wide surgical approach.”

 

In the end， Dr. Park shared with us his personal opinion on robotic surgery compared with laparoscopic surgery， based on his own experience. “I did robotic surgery very enthusiastically myself for research already eight years ago， and in my own experience there was no benefit of robotic surgery over laparoscopy surgery. The operation is an expensive one， so I have no reason to persuade the patient to undergo robotic surgery. In current situation， the robotic set is just a system which is copying our procedure， our hand motion， but that is it. Somebody said that robotic surgery has offered us 3D image and immune florescence guide image， but it is ok with the laparoscopy， 3D videoscopy. And laparoscopy also offer us the fluorescent guidance. The one thing that surgeons suggest is that robotic surgery decrease our stress physically and mentally. Although it is less stressful for the surgeon， the patient has to pay the high cost of the operation.