Alarmed by a spate of deaths following laparoscopic operations last year at Gunma University Hospital, a surgeons association has surveyed other medical institutions and found a worryingly high death rate nationwide.
The Japanese Society of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery surveyed 212 medical institutions in January and found that one in 10 patients who underwent "highly technical" laparoscopic liver surgery died within 90 days. Those who had a less specialized form of laparascopic surgery had a better survival rate.
Gunma University Hospital said in November that eight people died within four months of laparascopic surgery conducted by the same surgeon between 2010 and 2014.