culture

Kim Ok Chol, head of the urological surgery department at the Pyongyang University of Medical Sciences Hospital, has special abilities in applying percutaneous removal of renal calculi, recognized as a cutting-edge medical technique.

This technique is a method of smashing or removing calculus while seeing its two-dimensional scene by using kidney scope and laser. 

As an open operation is not required, the technique accelerates the course of recovery and is very high in the rate of success while minimizing the negative influence on the patient. Until the time of introducing it, it was a monopoly of some countries. 

Kim Ok Chol made a firm determination to develop the technique in a Korean way at any cost.

But it was not plain sailing.

He lacked experience, and there was no guarantee of success. 

There were many times of frustration and disappointment in continuous simulation operations on the animals.

But he did not give up.

Whenever he experienced failure, he studied relevant documents to find out a clue for conducting operation with a new idea and method, and directed efforts to practising essential movements of the hand. At last he succeeded in developing a surgical method that suits the physical constitution of Koreans. 

He applied the technique, which makes it possible to treat effectively not only renal calculus but also such lithiasis of urinary system as urinary calculus, to clinical practice, bringing pleasure and health back to many people, who had been suffering from the incurable diseases in the past.

He says that his goal is to pioneer a higher cutting-edge sector in the urinary system.