'Medical Korea' as a single brand

Suh, who has performed about 1,700 liver transplants, is one of Korea's best and most prolific liver transplant surgeons, whose reputation reaches far beyond the nation's borders. /Korea Times

Renowned liver transplant surgeon to establish national standards

By Jung Min-ho, Kim Eil-chul

When it comes to liver transplantation, Korea has some of the world's finest hospitals such as Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH), which has a near-perfect success rate over the past decade.

The next step the country should take is to promote "Medical Korea" as a brand by establishing national quality standards for liver transplantation and beyond, Professor Suh Kyung-suk at SNUH said.

"I'm planning to create a system for quality control so that patients can get standardized, quality-approved medical services anywhere they go," Suh, 56, said in an interview. "A stable system will save more lives and make foreign patients trust the nation's medical services as a whole."

The world's renowned liver transplant surgeon has already systemized treatment procedures in his field at SNUH and has shared his know-how with surgeons at other hospitals for years. Thanks to his efforts, the average success rate of liver transplantation in Korea today is about 96 percent, among the highest in the world.

Suh believes other medical fields can also make such improvements and he wants to play a leading role in that goal after he starts his two-year term as the chairman of the board at the Korean Surgical Society in November.

"From surgical procedures to ethics, there are many things in which doctors need to be educated. I want to set up a more solid, comprehensive system for better treatment," he said. "Korea is known as one of the best countries for liver transplantation today. However, accidents could occur and ruin it all. We need to minimize the risks by having such a system."

Along with Lee Sung-gyu at Asan Medical Center, Suh is one of Korea's best and most prolific liver transplant surgeons, whose reputation reaches far beyond the nation's borders.

Since his first surgery in 1988, Suh has performed about 1,700 liver transplants, using liver mainly from living donors, not from brain-dead ones.

The five-year survival rate of liver transplant recipients at SNUH is 83 percent, far higher than the U.S. average of 75 percent. Also, despite the large number of liver transplant cases that the surgeon has performed, none of his living donors have died or suffered from serious complications as a result of the operation.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, two out of every 1,000 liver donors die in the country as a result of the surgery.

"No hesitation, better conditions of patients (compared to those in the past) and proper division of labor are the secrets of our team's good performance," Suh said.

In the operating room, his team members know exactly what they are supposed to do: Suh's job is to remove part of the donor's liver and to transplant it in the recipient, and each member does his or her part, such as removing the damaged liver and reconnecting arteries of the recipient.

"The division of labor also reduced the operation time to five to six hours, which is much shorter than in most other major hospitals overseas," he said.

Safety is the most important aspect in each of his operations, but it isn't the only important aspect.

"Because the number of organ donors is never enough for the demand, in Korea, it usually is a family member who gives his or her liver to the patient," he said. "They are good people, and it is hard for me to leave big scars on their bodies. So I started to think about possible ways to minimize the scars."

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In 2007, Suh became the world's first doctor to remove a portion of the living donor's liver successfully using laparoscopic surgery, a modern surgical technique in which the operation is performed through small incisions far from the target location in the body.

The list of his accomplishments goes on. In 2008, Suh became the first doctor in Korea to perform a mono-segment liver transplantation on a 60-day-old infant with acute hepatitis.

But for him, it is not about setting or breaking records, but rather about saving and improving people's lives. "Such moments remind me of the importance of what I do here and motivate me to become better at it," he said.

/ Korea Times

Building excellence from scratch

With the help of his professor Kim Soo-tae at SNUH, Suh has been at the forefront of making history in liver transplantation in Korea.

"It was all started by Kim. In the late 1960s, when few Korean doctors understood what liver transplantation meant, he started testing with animals," Suh said. "Fascinated by his passion for the work, I joined his team as a trainee doctor in the 1980s."

For two years, Suh's main job was to take care of the dogs that received a liver transplant.

"I always had to be with them to observe their recovery. I slept on the carpet beside them for many nights," he said. "Kim came to my room every morning to check whether the dog survived. Many did not. It was very difficult at the beginning."

"And then, finally, one survived the whole night. Kim was delighted and took a picture of me with the dog. I still remember the day vividly."

In 1988, Kim and Suh, along with other staffs, became the nation's first team to perform liver transplantation on a human body.

"When the country did not have specific laws in regard to the new medical procedure, it was a brave initiative. Kim could have been charged with murder," Suh said. "Even the director of SNUH was opposed to the surgery, but he pushed ahead."

They desperately wanted to save the life of the patient for many reasons and, fortunately, the surgery was a success.

Suh started his training as a liver transplant surgeon in the early 1990s in Japan. Professor Masatoshi Makuuchi at Shinshu University was his trainer and mentor.

"I learned greatly from him, especially in the fields of anatomy and ultrasound," he said. "He was very knowledgeable and kind."

Then in 1995, he moved to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he grew further as a researcher.

"For about two years there, I learned about the importance of systems that cover not only surgery but the entire treatment process," he said.

It was only less than 30 years ago in Korea when patients with a serious liver illness had to go to countries such as Japan and the United States to get a liver transplant. Today, the trend is the reverse.

"Nowadays many doctors and patients from other nations, including Japan and the United States, come to SNUH for training and treatment, respectively," he said. "Some developing countries do not have the necessary infrastructure for liver transplantation yet. But I do believe some of the trainee doctors here will someday play an important role in saving and improving the lives of many people in their home countries."

"Japanese and American doctors helped me get where I am today. It is my turn to return the favor."