His surgery is so immaculate that I can’t find any defect in it. Excellent! The laparoscopic operation of the DPRK has reached the world level.

This is what Professor Uhany Billy Sand from Finland said after a joint surgical operation in 2017 with Jo Ye Rim, doctor at the abdominal surgery department of Kim Man Yu Hospital.

To pioneer an advanced operation method

After his graduation from the postgraduate course at Pyongyang University of Medical Sciences, Jo Ye Rim was appointed as a doctor of the abdominal surgery department of Kim Man Yu Hospital in 2010. At that time, laparoscopic operation, especially SILS (single incision laparoscopic surgery), was conducted only in a few developed countries as it was an advanced method in the field of abdominal surgery.

From his university days, he had a dream of introducing a new surgical method. He made a decision to introduce SILS, a high stage of laparoscopic operation, which was an unknown field in his country until then.

He analyzed the relevant data at the Grand People’s Study House and the Sci-Tech Complex and conducted simulated operations several times. In the course of this, he developed surgical apparatuses suited to the constitutions of the Koreans, and conceived a new extracorporeal procedure.

Based on these preparations, he succeeded in pioneering single incision laparoscopic appendectomy by means of SILS in March 2016. The operation was of high degree with only 1 cm long cut, 5 to 10 minutes of operating time, no complication after surgery and leaving hospital within a few hours with no wound left. In January 2017 he succeeded in single incision laparoscopic cholecystectomy of a higher level by means of SILS.

The laparoscopic experts from Europe, who had performed joint operations with him, did not trust his method of operation at first; only when they themselves watched his operation, did they admitted that his was a unique method.

A foreign professor said that the young laparoscopic expert possesses a smart and sophisticated technique, and another professor said that the operator was very skillful in the operation and the method of laparoscopic surgery by means of SILS was of high degree.

Without resting on laurels

Today, laparoscopic surgery by means of SILS, which can be applied to almost all abdominal diseases, has emerged as a new laparoscopic operation system, rapidly accelerating the development of abdominal surgery. This technique is not described in any book, and no one is easily likely to transfer it to others.

Jo buckled down to a new study again. His goal was to treat all diseases related with abdominal surgery by means of SILS.

He presented single incision laparoscopic small intestine excision by means of SILS through minimally invasive surgery in May 2018 and single incision laparoscopic sigmoidectomy by means of SILS in April 2020.

The medical community highly appreciated the methods.

But he continued to open up new fields without resting on laurels.

He succeeded in performing single incision laparoscopic common bile duct exploration by means of SILS in August 2020, single incision laparoscopic gastro-jejunostomy in June 2022 and single incision laparoscopic right hemicolectomy by means of SILS followed by single incision laparoscopic gastrectomy by means of SILS in September, thus performing great feats in the field of abdominal surgery of the country.

For his successes in several operations by means of SILS, he was awarded 10-odd national certificates of invention and technical conception.

Now working as head of the laparoscopic study room at Kim Man Yu Hospital, he has successfully conducted over one thousand and several hundred laparoscopic surgical operations by means of SLIS. It is his intention to develop more new surgical methods in the future.