Global medical device corporations Medtronic said on the 5th it will launch in Korea the surgical energy instrument "LigaSure™," which can be mounted on and used with its robotic surgery system "Hugo™."
LigaSure is an electrosurgical vessel-sealing instrument that performs vessel sealing and tissue cutting simultaneously with a single instrument. It precisely measures tissue impedance to deliver only the necessary energy and can safely seal vessels up to 7 mm.
Over the past 20 years, LigaSure has been used in more than 35 million procedures in over 65 countries worldwide, demonstrating clinical utility and safety. In Korea, it received approval in 2008 and has been used across various surgical fields, including general surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, and urology.
The newly released LigaSure RAS is designed to be compatible with the Hugo robotic surgery system. It can be mounted directly on Hugo without a separate consolidation device, and the operating surgeon can precisely control energy using only the foot pedal at the surgical console. Because a single instrument can perform both hemostasis and cutting, it reduces the hassle of instrument changes during surgery and is said to improve the stability and efficiency of the surgical flow.
Medtronic's Hugo robotic surgery system received domestic approval in 2024 for general endoscopic (laparoscopic) surgical indications, including cholecystectomy and prostatectomy. In May 2025, it was first introduced at the Seoul National University Hospital Robotic Surgery Center and has been used for patient care.
Hugo is also being applied to high-difficulty surgeries such as hysterectomy, pancreatoduodenectomy, oophorectomy and salpingectomy, colectomy, and pelvic lymph node dissection. It is currently in use across five continents in more than 30 countries, and more than 270 independent clinical papers have reported its clinical efficacy and safety.
Chung Chang-uk, head of the Seoul National University Hospital Robotic Surgery Center (urology), said, "As the use of robotic surgery expands, there is growing demand for combining proven surgical tools with robotic systems," and added, "The combination of a proven energy instrument with the latest robotic surgery system will help improve surgical precision and efficiency."
Kim Hak-jun, senior director overseeing marketing at Medtronic Korea, said, "The combination of LigaSure and Hugo is an example that shows Medtronic's surgical strategy to enhance access to minimally invasive surgery by consolidation various surgical techniques and platforms," and added, "We will contribute to improving overall quality of care by building an integrated surgical ecosystem."