The number of high-tech surgical interferences is increasing every year in Belarus. Our country was ranked 10th place by the donation rates according to the IRODaT Worldwide Actual Deceased Organ Donors’ rate, 11th place by the number of kidney transplantation per million population and 26th place by the number of liver transplantation per million population. Last year, there were 531 surgeries on the transplantation of organs performed including 361 transplantations of kidney, 110 transplantations of liver, 53 transplantations of heart and 7 transplantations of lung. Among this, there were 12,890 endoprosthesis replacements of the hip joint and 6,720 replacements of the knee joint; the Republican Scientific and Practical Centre of Traumatology and Orthopedics successfully performed 39 surgeries on the endoprosthesis replacement of the shoulder joint.

Transplantation record

At the end of February, in the Minsk Scientific and Practical Centre (MSPC) for Surgery, Transplantology and Hematology, the first robotic liver resection was performed, the first one on the Medbot complex. The patient feels well and is preparing for the release. The implementation of the robotic complex opens a new era in the liver lesion treatment and takes the Belarusian surgery sphere to the next level.

Among the advantages of the robotic surgery on the liver are the precision (3D high resolution imaging provides a detailed overview of anatomy, vessels and bile ducts), the minimal blood loss (precision dissection and coagulation decrease the blood loss and the necessity in the blood transfusions), the access to the complex areas (7 degrees of freedom of movement of the instruments allows to perform surgery in the less accessible for the laparoscopy liver segments). Beyond this, the minimal trauma reduces the length of hospitalisation and complications risks — there are less traumatic fevers, postoperative pains and overall incidence during such surgeries.

In general, the launch of such complex is a unique event. It is a result of a huge serious work done by the MSPC for Surgery, Transplantology and Hematology and the whole national healthcare on their path of implementing the modern technologies into widespread clinical practice. The equipment provided by the Chinese partners is one of the most advanced in the world. Such surgical complexes allow to perform remote surgical interference and counselling. It is an important step in the sphere of digitalisation and the concept of development of the medical help for the Belarusian population according to which each citizen of the country regardless of place of residence should get the advanced surgical treatment

The surgeries with the help of the robotic complex were performed not only on the patients with the liver conditions that are the specialisations of the centre. The first surgical interferences were performed in the new urology department as well. According to the head of the centre, holder of Habilitation degree in Medicine, professor, member of the Academy of Sciences Alieh Rummo, the equipment proved its highest effectiveness in the spheres of oncourology, during the surgeries on the prostate gland and other.

Based on MSPC the training centre for preparing the specialists of the robotic surgery is created. «It is a powerful incentive not only for the development of surgery sphere, but also for the professional growth of our young specialists, who will be proficient in these complexes in the shortest period of time,» Alieh Rummo highlighted.

As mentioned above, the last year was the most successful in the number of transplantations in our country: 531 surgeries were performed. It is an absolute record for all time of existence of the Belarusian transplantation industry. In regard to the particular cases, the head of MSPC mentioned a few unique surgeries performed on Belarusians and the residents of the post-Soviet space, particularly from Uzbekistan, Georgia and Armenia.

«From 2019 we cooperate with the Arabkir Institute of Child and Adolescent Health in the capital of Armenia. Last year, we travelled to the surgeries on transplantation twice. Moreover, in the second case it was found out that it was possible to perform not the transplantation, but the surgery to remove the tumour without the transplantation for the patient — a small child — with the liver cancer,» the head of MSPC revealed. «It is one thing to remove the whole liver and the other thing to leave the part of the liver, to make it regrow and work. We succeeded in this in Yerevan in October 2025.’’

Born twice

In February, the unique high-tech surgery was performed by the Belarusian paediatric heart surgeons on the newborn Russian citizen. The surgical interference was performed on a newborn child with the weight of 2.5 kg. It is a very low weight of a patient for such surgery. The child spent about 10 hours in the operating theatre, and his heart had been stopped for more than an hour and a half.

«The reconstruction made on a child is unique. As a rule, such surgeries are performed in two phases throughout the world. However, we, based on our experience and our opportunities, made a decision to treat a child in one phase. It surely has increased the risks, but it has led to success,» the head of the Republican Scientific and Practical Centre (RSPC) of Paediatric Surgery, the main visiting paediatric heart surgeon of the Ministry of Health Kanstantsin Drazdowski.

• The surgery was truly unique. The child was admitted to the centre for emergency reasons immediately after birth. They were diagnosed with the complex combined congenital heart disease in the form of interrupted aortic arch and ventricular septal defect, which needed emergency intervention in the first days of the child’s life. In the most centres, the treatment process for such diagnosis is divided into the few phase surgeries. The first one can be performed immediately in the first days after the birth, and the next with the growth of a baby. As a rule, after the patient reaches one year, the surgery treatment stops. However, in this case Belarusian heart surgeons decided to resort to a single-step surgical correction, meaning that they eliminated the interrupted aortic arch, restored the integrity of the major great vessel coming from the heart and closed the ventricular septal defect in one surgery. The surgery went uncomplicated. The child spent a few days in the intensive care unit and after the rehabilitation they returned home to Moscow together with their mother.

In fact, there are very few patients with such small weight, who can undergo single-step surgery. Even in the worldwide practice, and especially within the CIS countries, these are the isolated surgeries. «Low weight is a challenge for every paediatric heart surgeon, for every doctor. It is complicated technically and therapeutically to treat such patients. However, we keep in step with the times and adapt technologies for these children to receive qualified help,» Kanstantsin Drazdowski highlighted.

Last summer our heart surgeons performed a unique surgery on a nine-year-old child from Kazakhstan, who was diagnosed with the severe form of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The surgery was performed as part of the agreement between the RSPC of Paediatric Surgery and the Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Ordinarily, the boy would need a heart transplantation, however, Belarusian specialists consulting with the colleagues, including the colleagues from Russia that have a lot of experience of performing such surgeries, made a decision in favour of surgical interference. The interference lasted for about 5 hours. The patient’s heart was stopped for two hours. For all that time the life-support systems worked on sustaining the life of the patient.

«Technically, the surgery was very complicated. The excessive muscles that prevent the child’s heartbeat, had to be removed from two sides. From the side of the valve and from the other side, through the transapical approach, basically through the incision of the heart apex, which was performed for first time in Belarus. In this situation it is impossible to perform wrongly. The surgery was the most complicated. Still, the child is recovering and feeling well,» Kanstantsin Drazdowski stated.

Heart in safe hands

The republican cardiologists mastered the unique method of treating the cardiac insufficiency. The head of the Cardiology Republican Scientific and Practical Centre, holder of Habilitation degree in Medicine, professor Andrej Prystrom speaking about their work mentioned that the specialists mastered dozens of modern methods, some of which were developed in participation with the foreign colleagues. «These technologies are being mastered on the centre’s basis and then they gradually move towards the other levels of helping patients — in the interdistrict centres and regional hospitals. Our professionals implemented the most advanced technology of approximation of the papillary muscles of the left ventricle, which provided the help on the basis of our centre for the fifth patient. There are 18 patients with such diagnosis in the world,» the head of the centre revealed.

• The new technology of treating the cardiac insufficiency is a development of Israeli experts. The technology itself is a surgery on restoration of the anatomical shape, structure and functioning of the left heart ventricle on the patients with complicated cardiomyopathy. The surgical interference is preceded by the preparatory phase when the analog heart model of a patient is made with a 3D printer. Then the layout is displayed on the screen and the operating heart surgeon amid preparations for the surgery perform the training approximation of the papillary muscles, because the heart size is individual for every patient. Such training before the surgery guarantees its success.

Among the advanced methods of cardiopathology treatment, the head of centre spoke about the transcatheter aortic valve implantation surgeries. «The number of such surgeries are in the hundreds. The method is mastered, and today our experts travel to the regional medical facilities to consult the surgeons learning this technology,» Andrej Prystrom stated.

In the Cardiology RSPC, the unique heart surgeries on pregnant women are performed as well. Last July, one of such surgeries was performed for the first time in Belarus. High-tech heart surgical interference was performed on a 33-year-old female patient with a pregnancy term of 23 weeks — it was the removal of the left atrium myxomatosis during the artificial blood circulation. The multidisciplinary team from the Cardiology RSPC and Mother and Child RSPC has been working. The experts handled the complicated task excellently: they eliminated the situation threatening the mother’s life and saved the child’s life as well. The surgery and the postoperative period went without complications, and the pregnancy was able to be prolonged to the 38 weeks. At the beginning of October as a result of planned caesarean section a full-term boy was born with the weight of 3230 g, height of 52 cm and with the satisfactory indicators of the Apgar scale.

Beyond that, the centre has performed 635 heart transplantations since 2009, 39 of them were performed in 2025. The youngest patient with the transplanted heart was nine years old, and the oldest one was 73 years old.

Elena Kravets