By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Jan 19: History was made at Sibu Hospital when a Unilateral Biportal Endoscopic (UBE) spine surgery was successfully performed for the first time in Sarawak by a Ministry of Health (MOH) neurosurgeon, marking a major milestone for neurosurgical care in Central Sarawak.
In a Facebook post, Sibu Hospital neurosurgeon Dr Nelson Yap Kok Bing said the landmark procedure, carried out on Jan 13, was also “quite possibly the first” UBE spine surgery to be performed in a district hospital in Malaysia.
“This was not just a new procedure. It was a statement that geography, status and limited resources should never decide who deserves modern, minimally invasive care,” he wrote.
Dr Nelson highlighted that while a limited number of UBE procedures have been conducted at tertiary MOH hospitals in West Malaysia, patients often face additional financial charges. In contrast, the inaugural UBE surgery in Sibu was performed without any extra cost to the patient.
Following his spine fellowship training at Wooridul Spine Hospital in Seoul, Dr Nelson said he was eager to introduce endoscopic spine surgery to Sibu but encountered significant cost barriers. He noted that uniportal endoscopic spine surgery alone can incur rental fees of RM20,000 to RM30,000 per case, making it inaccessible to most patients in Central Sarawak.
“Over the course of two years, I painstakingly compiled the necessary equipment for biportal endoscopic spine surgery,” he said, adding that acquiring assets through official MOH channels proved extremely challenging.
“Nevertheless, persistence prevailed. The sacrifice, frustration and waiting were ultimately worthwhile. We made the procedure free for the patient,” he said.
He described making endoscopic spine surgery affordable, or better still, free, as “the most logical and ethical approach” to delivering minimally invasive spine care, particularly in non-Kayangan hospitals in East Malaysia where financial and logistical challenges are more pronounced.
Recounting the landmark case, Dr Nelson said the patient was a 70-year-old woman who had been suffering from severe low back pain for more than six months. MRI scans revealed L4/5 spinal canal stenosis. After counselling and preoperative assessment, she consented to the surgery.
“The procedure proceeded smoothly, with no major hiccups, and was completed earlier than anticipated,” he said, noting that some UBE cases elsewhere reportedly took up to 10 hours or had to be converted to open surgery.
“This achievement did not belong to one surgeon alone,” he added. “It belonged to a band of brothers and sisters, the anaesthetic team and operating theatre nurses, who worked with commitment, resilience and heart.”
Dr Nelson also expressed gratitude to industry partners Riff Raff, Medtronic and Karl Storz for their support and equipment contributions, which helped bring what he described as world-class care to a place often overlooked.
With UBE spine services now available in Sibu, he said the hospital is poised to advance to the next level of spine surgery, offering minimally invasive procedures that reduce surgical impact while improving patient outcomes for communities in Central Sarawak.
He also welcomed potential donors to support the introduction of uniportal endoscopic spine surgery in Sibu.
“History shows this clearly,” he said. “Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.” — DayakDaily
