Longest distance between patient and surgeon

The longest distance between patient and surgeon is 12,034.92 Km and was achieved by Jaber Al-Ahmad Hospital and SCOLLA Collaborative, Zain Group and The Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science (all Kuwait), between Kuwait and Brazil on 23 September 2025.

On 23 September 2025, surgical teams operating from Jaber Al-Ahmad Hospital in Kuwait and SCOLLA in Hospital Cruz Vermelha in Brazil performed a series of robotic tele-surgery operations across a record-breaking distance of 12,034.92 km (7,480 miles) each way. The procedures were inguinal TAPP (transabdominal preperitoneal) repair, carried out using advanced robotic surgical systems connected over a secured high-bandwidth international network provided by Zain Telecommunications and supported by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science (KFAS).

The operations were made possible through the collaboration of surgeons, and scientists from Edge Medical and AUEMET who successfully completed the surgery with an average latency of 199 milliseconds, an average bandwidth of 80 Mbps, and a packet loss of just 0.19%.

Two procedures were performed: in the first, a surgical team in Kuwait operated on a patient in Brazil; in the second, the roles were reversed, with surgeons in Brazil operating on a patient in Kuwait. This achievement marks not only the longest-distance robotic tele-surgeries ever performed, but also a demonstration of true two-way international robotic surgery.

Both operations were completed successfully and safely, underscoring the feasibility of global collaboration in surgical care and setting a new benchmark in the field of remote robotic surgery. The surgeons were Dr Sulaiman Almazeedi, Dr Marcelo Loureiro, Dr Mohannad Alhaddad, Dr Ahmed Karim, Dr Hmoud Alrashidi, and Dr Leandro Totti Cavazzola.