Robotic-Assisted Subretinal Injection Over an Ultra-Long Distance for Submacular Hemorrhage

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A remote surgeon in Guangzhou performed robot-assisted subretinal rt-PA injection for submacular hemorrhage in a patient treated in Urumqi, approximately 4000 km away.
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The procedure used a teleoperated robotic platform over a 5G network and was completed without conversion to manual surgery, instrument malfunction, or intraoperative complication.
3

The patient received 0.056 mL of rt-PA at 0.5 mg/mL, and the operation lasted 46 minutes, including 7 minutes from robotic instrument insertion to injection completion.
4

No serious adverse events were documented during 3 months of follow-up, and imaging showed complete hemorrhage resolution by postoperative day 23.
5

At 3 months, best-corrected visual acuity remained 0.6 logMAR (20/80), unchanged from before surgery; angiography identified polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy as the cause.

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