Shanghai, China —— Honghu Orthopedic Surgical Robot(hereinafter referred to as MicroPort^® Honghu), completely independently developed by MicroPort NaviBot (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. (MicroPort^®NaviBot^®), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shanghai MicroPort MedBot (Group) Co., Ltd. (MedBot^®), was approved on April 21, 2022 by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), and became the first and only orthopedic surgery robot equipped with robotic arms developed by the Chinese enterprise with independent intellectual property rights. With the approval of MicroPort^® Honghu, the monopoly of imported products on the domestic market of orthopedic joint robots is broken, thus promoting the rapid development of China's smart orthopedic surgery robots, further achieving the precise medical treatment, and creating conditions for the surgical robot technology to access to primary hospitals and benefit more patients.

Joint replacement, especially the total knee arthroplasty (TKA), is a highly sophisticated surgical procedure with great difficulty in the field of orthopedics. Orthopedic surgery robots utilize the digital methods to empower the doctors' "hands" (robotic arms), "eyes" (navigation) and "brain" (intelligent planning). Its convenience in operation, short learning curve and other related advantages can effectively solve the clinical pain points of traditional surgery too much dependent on the experience of surgeons and unable to achieve standardized and repeatable operations. Meanwhile, the application of orthopedic surgery robot is conducive to the construction of standardized diagnosis and treatment process of orthopedic procedures, effectively alleviates the contradiction between the shortage of medical resources for high-quality joint replacement surgeries in China and the rising demand for surgical procedures. Furthermore, it has broken the monopoly of imported products on the domestic market of orthopedic joint robots, and provided more accurate, smarter and all-inclusive joint replacement solutions to more patients suffering from orthopedic diseases.

As the only surgery robot company in the world whose business covers the five "Golden Racetracks": laparoscopic, orthopedic, panvascular, natural orifice and percutaneous surgical procedures, MicroPort^®NaviBot^® under MedBot^® is the first professional team in China to break through the technical problems of orthopedic joint surgery robots, which was approved in 2017 as a special project of “Research and Development of Digital Diagnosis and Therapeutic Treatment Devices", a National Key R&D Program of China. After years of independent research and development, MicroPort^®NaviBot^® has built up a good medical-industrial collaboration system based on clinical needs, overcome the difficulties in multi-disciplinary fields such as biomechanics, ergonomics, mechanical and electrical engineering, and computer science, etc., achieved important breakthroughs in core technologies such as research and development of highly dexterous and lightweight robotic arms, intelligent planning and navigation algorithms, and pushed the underlying technological development capability of orthopedic surgery robots of China up to the advanced international level.

MicroPort^® Honghu has demonstrated its technical advantages such as accurate operation, efficient collaboration, safety protection and high compatibility in the clinical trials. Its planning system can help surgeons make personalized implant plans before the procedure on the basis of pre-operative CT scan data and prosthesis model data of patients. During the procedure, it proceeds from the precise positioning of surgical planning, and quickly complete the osteotomy through the registration technology in combination of the independently-developed high dexterity and lightweight robotic arms, thus improving the accuracy and efficiency of operation. MicroPort^® Honghu avoids the required location of femoral canal in traditional surgeries and the intramedullary rod implantation during the procedure, which can reduce the surgical injury and bleeding, improve the force line after operation, minimize related complications, and help patients achieve rapid post-operative recovery.

After the approval of MicroPort^® Honghu, MedBot® will further promote the popularization and access of high-quality medical resources through clinical education, training and related services. MedBot^® has already built a "Robot-Assisted Surgery Center" with multiple hospitals and will continue to provide the high-quality one-stop services including technical training, customer services and clinical supports. MicroPort^® Honghu can be equipped with the 5G interconnection platform independently developed by MicroPort^®NaviBot^®. It adopts the innovative robot surgery teaching demonstration modes, such as mobile training and display platform, promotes the access to training resources on surgeons, bridges the regional differences in medical treatment, shortens the learning curve of primary surgeons, improves the homogenization level of surgical techniques, and helps hospitals at all levels to improve the surgical efficiency and ward turnover rate while benefiting more patients.