Wooridul Hospital is the largest spine and joint specialized hospital focusing on spine and joint for 30 years. With its competitiveness in the field of minimally invasive surgery, we manage 10 hospitals in Korea and 3 abroad (Dubai, Indonesia, and Turkey) 13 in total. Foreign press such as CNN, New York Times, NHK featured Wooridul Hospital.
In 2006 Wooridul International Patients Center (WIPC) was established when a department exclusively for international patients was hardly found. Coordinators of WIPC offer ‘One-stop-Service’ which includes consultation, arrival, treatment, departure, and follow-up service. Since establishment of WIPC, more than 8000 international patients have visited Wooridul Hospital. We have patients from Russia, Middle East, Mongolia and also from USA, Japan and European countries where advanced medical treatments are available. In addition, we have set up the Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery course (MISS course) and have been passing on cutting-edge treatment to the spine specialists in the world. So far, more than 300 spine doctors from 30 countries came to learn our surgery techniques.
Wooridul Hospital is strategically located in Gimpo Airport in order to attract international patients. Dr. Gun Choi, a director of Wooridul Hospital, is one of the spine endoscopic procedure experts with having performed 3,000 cases and issued 10 SCI international academic journals. Currently he is serving as a president of International Intradiscal Theraphy Society, a representative of Asian Society of Minimally Invasive Spinal Surgery, and elected as the next president of World Congress of MIS Spine Surgery and Techniques at the fourth WCMISST held in France, June 2014.
Endoscopic spine procedure is called ‘minimally invasive treatment,’ and it is a way to cure intervertebral disc without making an incision. Under the local anesthesia, endoscope tube is inserted through the skin and the lesion is treated with endoscope and laser high-frequency heat. The key point of this procedure is to preserve the normal tissue and only treat the disc disc segments bulging out of annulus fiber. By avoiding general anesthesia and making a small incision, risks for side effects like muscle and normal tissue damage are significantly minimized and recovery period is quick.
Dr. Gun Choi says, “True to our founding principle ‘For better quality of life of patients suffering from spine and joint disease all over the world’, Wooridul Hospital will continue to do its best in advanced medical treatments and technologies to help patients around the world as a world-leading spine & joint hospital.
