Registered Nurse Sister Sonya van den Berg and Prof Heine van der Walt are pictured in surgery at Netcare Unitas Hospital. A two-way real-time livestream link enabled thousands of international congress delegates to watch the complex procedures live.

Internationally renowned South African laparoscopic surgeon Professor Heine van der Walt was recently selected to demonstrate his minimally invasive surgical techniques for two highly complex procedures at the Global Digestive System Congress held in Rome, Italy.

“Prof Van der Walt is well known for his generosity in sharing his knowledge with colleagues both at home and abroad, which extends the benefit of his expertise to countless more patients worldwide, in addition to those he treats directly at our hospital,” says Netcare Unitas Hospital manager Pieter Louw.

Now in its 35th year, the Congress is a leading international platform for medical professionals and one of the largest surgical congresses in the world, with some 3 000 in-person attendees at the Auditorium del Massimo in Rome, Italy, and many thousands more delegates participating remotely from all over the world.



On Thursday, 28 November, Prof Van der Walt demonstrated two laparoscopic revisional anti-reflux surgeries via live stream from a specially equipped theatre at Netcare Unitas Hospital as an educational demonstration for the Congress. Of the five continents represented in 150 live educational procedures, Prof Van der Walt was the only representative from Africa.

“It is always an honour to be invited to participate in these conferences that bring together the medical community to exchange knowledge and develop skills relevant to related disciplines. These live transmission cases allow us to demonstrate both novel and standard techniques and keep abreast of any significant updates,” Prof Van der Walt says.

“The two live procedures are for patients who require revisional anti-reflux interventions to correct previous failed surgeries. These can be extremely complicated cases, and the surgeon must be prepared for a range of possible scenarios.

"Every opportunity to share knowledge and skills that can better equip surgeons for such procedures is therefore invaluable, particularly since the oesophagus is one of the most sensitive organs in the body.”

Prof Van der Walt, who is highly sought after for international conference presentations, points out how technology is making it easier than ever before to contribute to global knowledge building forums such as the Congress.

“I used to have to travel to Europe in person for these educational cases; however, with how far technology has come, I can now perform the surgeries from here, and the transmission clarity is excellent.

“Over the years, we went through so many telecommunications techniques, from a mobile satellite dish on the roof of the hospital to eventually having the breakthrough of 5G to transmit the livestream, which, in fact, worked rather well.

“Now we have got even more advanced: using the hospital’s fibre connection, and with the assistance of a technical link up team, we can establish a clear real-time two-way link with the conference venue, and it has become relatively simple to share the experience of live educational procedures with hundreds of thousands of surgeons all over the world.

“It is very rewarding to be a part of these opportunities for global exchange of knowledge aimed at improving outcomes for patients everywhere,” Prof Van der Walt says. 

“We thank Prof Van der Walt for his dedication to cultivating surgical skills in this highly specialised field and for continually remaining at the cutting edge of his discipline internationally,” Louw concluded.