Bulletin No. 1, 2012

News in Brief   41  First Robotic Endoscopic Scarless Surgery T h e De p a r tmen t o f Su r g e r y performed two cases of robotic- assisted endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) for the treatment of early gastric neoplasia—the first two cases in Hong Kong and among the first five cases on humans around the world. The surgery employed the newly designed delicate robotic arms attached to the ordinary endoscope to facilitate the performance of complex endoscopic surgery by extending the degree of movement through the two robotic arms. Novel Epilepsy Genetic Markers Found The CUHK Faculty of Medicine joined hands with the University of Hong Kong Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine in identifying the genetic markers for epilepsy using advanced technology that scanned nearly half a million sites of variation in the human genome, the first study in the world. The researchers investigated 1,087 people with epilepsy and compared them to 3,444 people without. They found significant differences exist in the frequencies of certain variants between the two groups. The strongest difference was found in a gene called CAMSAP1L1 which may affect how nerve cells in the brain grow to form connections and networks with each other. Based on the findings, 65% of Hong Kong Chinese carry the high-risk form of this genetic variant, which increases the chance of developing epilepsy by approximately 60%. The findings have been reported in Human Molecular Genetics in November 2011. Prof. Chiu Wai-yan Philip of the Department of Surgery has successfully performed robotic-assisted ESD Dr. Patrick Kwan, honorary clinical associate professor (left), Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, and Prof. Larry Baum, associate professor, School of Pharmacy