Medical experts at Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital recently performed the world's first tumor resection by breaking into the pleura in an ultra-minimally invasive way with the assistance of endoscope, marking another major technological breakthrough in the field of minimally invasive resection with endoscope.

Zhou Pinghong, director of the Endoscope Center of the hospital affiliated with Fudan University, performed the surgery on March 20. He shared the case at the 2024 Shanghai Symposium of Endoscopology held in Shanghai from Friday through Sunday.

During the operation, the surgeon entered the patient's thoracic cavity with the esophageal tunnel endoscope and used submucosaltunnel endoscopic resection, or STER technique, to precisely peel away the mass while preserving the patient's esophageal function.

The patient, a 28-year-old woman, has recovered well and has been discharged from hospital, according to the hospital.

Diagnosed with a large mass under the esophageal mucosa in 2023, the patient once faced the grim choice of thoracotomy to remove part of her esophagus. It meant that she may need to undergo digestive tract reconstruction and was at risk of esophageal fistula and esophageal strictures, among other things.

The hospital said that the successful implementation of the surgical operation has further broken the taboo in minimally invasive surgeries.

More than 3,500 representatives from the medical field from across the country participated in the symposium offline. Altogether 50 outstanding endoscopists from around the world completed 56 demonstration surgeries during the conference, covering a wide range of segments from the lumen of the digestive tract to extraluminal lesions.