Vietnam makes hallmark on world medical map

Prof. Dr. Tran Binh Giang - Director of Viet Duc University Hospital (C) and colleagues perform an endoscopic surgery (Photo courtesy of VDUH)

Hanoi (VNA) - Over the past years, Vietnam's health sector hasmade big strides with and many difficult techniques successfully applied,helping the country gain a foothold on the world medical map.

Viet Duc University Hospital - a major centre in the worldfor adrenal gland surgery

According to Prof. Dr. Tran Binh Giang - Director of VietDuc University Hospital (VDUH), endoscopic surgery is a medical field in Vietnam that is close to the development of the world. In 1987, the world's endoscopicsurgery was performed, and only 5 years later, Vietnam also conducted the typeof surgery for the first time.

At present, thanks to this technique, the most complicatedsurgeries such as nephrectomy, hepatectomy, gastrectomy, and Whipple procedurehave been performed.

In 2002, the scientific research by Prof. Dr. Giang onadrenal endoscopic surgery was published internationally. To date, thousands ofpatients have received the surgery and the VDUH has become a major centre in theworld for this type of work.

Every year, the hospital performs nearly 80,000 surgeries, withmany spearhead techniques implemented such as multi-organ transplants frombrain dead donors.

Vietnamese cardiologists – members of presidiums of manymajor international conferences

In recent years, the Vietnam National Heart Institute under the Bach Mai Hospital hasfocused on promoting interventional cardiology - minimally invasivecardiovascular surgery. In 2022, the institute performed advanced techniquessuch as transcatheter aortic valve replacement, and transcatheter mitral valverepair, instead of open surgeries.

Assoc. Prof., Dr. Pham Manh Hung, director of the institute,said that cardiology in Vietnam can stand on par with that in advancedcountries in the region and in Asia.

Organisers of major conferences such as the AmericanHeart Association Conference, the European Society of Cardiology Congress, andthe scientific conferences in Asia such as the Singapore LIVE 2022 have all invitedthe Vietnam National Heart Institute to speak at those events to share Vietnam's ownexperience in specific diseases.

Foreign doctors come to Vietnam to learn endoscopicthyroidectomy technique

Assoc. Prof., Dr. Tran Ngoc Luong, former Director of theNational Hospital of Endocrinology, is also one of those helping theVietnamese health sector make a hallmark on the world medical map. He isthe first in Vietnam and in the world to successfully research and performa unique endoscopic thyroidectomy technique, gaining big applauses from bothdomestic and foreign colleagues. This method has been transferred to not onlydomestic but also foreign doctors, opening a new direction in the curing ofthyroid diseases.

Foreign doctor (R) comes to Vietnam to learn about endoscopic thyroidectomy (Photo: bosvietnam.com)

The cost of surgery with his technique is only one-twenty fifthcompared to that of other countries in the region. A thyroidectomy in theRepublic of Korea or Singapore will need 2 hours and about8,000-10,000 USD, while Dr. Luong’s method conducted at the National Hospitalof Endocrinology takes only 30 minutes and 300-400USD.

As of 2021, more than 300 professors and doctors from 20countries around the world had come to the hospital to learn about his surgicalmethod./.

VNA