Annual Report 2022

Surgical Center

Tetsufumi Sato, Kazumi Ishii

Introduction

 In the operating rooms, 15 surgical oncology departments perform surgical operations. Highly difficult endoscopic therapies and bone marrow harvesting are also performed in the operating rooms under general anesthesia. We strive to provide the best surgical care to our patients through the cooperation of multiple professions, including anesthesiologists, nurses, clinical engineers, radiological technicians, pharmacists, and medical clerks.

The Team and What We Do

 The total number of surgeries conducted during the period from April 2022 to March 2023 was 5,503 cases. Among these, 5,052 cases were surgeries managed by the anesthesiology department (with general anesthesia in 5,044 cases), while 451 cases were surgeries performed under local anesthesia by various departments (Table 1, 2). The number of surgeries in the fiscal year 2022 recovered from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. PCR testing for COVID-19 was continued throughout the fiscal year 2022.

Table 1. Number of operations (2022.4-2023.3)

Table 2. Number of anesthesia cases (2022.4-2023.3)

 The renovation of the MRI operating room began in March 2021, and neurosurgical procedures started in the new MRI operating room from June 2022. New MRI devices with 0.4 Tesla were newly introduced, and thanks to the renovation work, the noise environment was significantly improved, leading to a substantial improvement in imaging performance.

 In the fiscal year 2022, in addition to urology, colorectal surgery, esophageal surgery, gynecology, and gastric surgery, robot-assisted surgery was newly introduced in the hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery department. The number of robot-assisted surgeries was 439 cases, which represented an approximately 1.5-fold increase compared to the previous fiscal year (Table 3).

 In response to the increase in laparoscopic and thoracoscopic surgeries in recent years, clinical engineering technicians have performed a wide range of tasks, including setting up endoscopic towers, setting up surgical robots, radiofrequency ablation for breast cancer, and assisting in neurosurgical monitoring.

Table 3. Number of Robotic Surgeries (2022.4-2023.3)

Education

 Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, surgical room training for foreign nationals was temporarily suspended in the fiscal year 2020. However, we resumed accepting international students from the fiscal year 2022. In the fiscal year 2022, we also hosted many observers and students for surgical training required for obtaining Da Vinci surgical qualifications and for student internships.