CHIANG MAI — 28 May 2026, Surgeons at Chiang Mai University’s Faculty of Medicine have performed the world’s first living donor liver surgery using the Hugo robotic-assisted surgery system, a breakthrough that also marks Thailand’s first robot-assisted living donor liver transplant.
The faculty announced the achievement at a press conference on Wednesday, revealing that its team had successfully used the Hugo RAS system to remove the left lobe of the liver from living donors in two separate transplant cases — one involving a child patient and one an adult.
In the first case, a 40-year-old mother donated part of her liver to her nine-year-old daughter, who was born with biliary atresia, a condition that blocks the bile ducts, and had developed severe cirrhosis with complications affecting her lungs and blood pressure. The girl had previously undergone a Kasai procedure as an infant and required supplemental oxygen at home before the transplant.
In the second case, a 27-year-old woman donated part of her liver to her 61-year-old father, who had cirrhosis and liver cancer. This case also marked Thailand’s first robot-assisted adult-to-adult living donor liver transplant.
Both donors recovered well, while both recipients underwent successful transplants under the care of a multidisciplinary team at Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sanhawit Chanrangsri, the operating surgeon, said the Hugo system’s precision was critical given the complexity of operating around the liver’s key structures.
“Living donor liver surgery demands the highest priority on donor safety, because these are healthy individuals undergoing surgery solely to save another person’s life,” he said. “The robotic system provides 3D visualisation and instruments that move like a human wrist, allowing surgeons to work with far greater precision in a narrow and deep space.”
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Worakit Laphisetphan, deputy director of the Centre of Medical Excellence, said Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital is the only institution in Thailand with continuous experience in adult-to-adult living donor liver transplantation. He added that removing the left lobe rather than the more commonly used right lobe reduces the impact on the donor’s remaining liver function.
All four patients — both donors and both recipients — are recovering well, according to the surgical team.
The nine-year-old recipient, who attended Wednesday’s press conference with her mother, thanked her doctors and said she hoped to become a doctor herself one day. She added that she had been looking forward to trying iced tea after the surgery — and confirmed it was worth the wait.
The faculty’s dean, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Naren Chotiros Niramit, noted the milestone coincided with the unit completing its 100th robotic-assisted surgery overall, spanning urology, hepatobiliary and colorectal procedures.