Medical Services

Specialized Centers

Burn Center

A burn can be a seriously devastating injury with various complications. It can affect the entire body including respiratory and other organ systems. Beyond physical complications, burns can even result in emotional distress.

Burns are classified into first-, second- or third-degree. Treatment for burns depends on their severity. People with similar degree of burns may suffer from different symptoms: some may suffer from trauma; and the others organ damage. A multidisciplinary approach must be individualized for each patient.

The burn center comprises medical professionals in burn surgery, plastic surgery, rehabilitation, psychiatry, dermatology, internal medicine and orthopedic surgery. Our highly coordinated team provides burn patients with excellent and customized medical care, covering the whole process of diagnosis, surgery, treatment, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

Since its opening in 1986, the center has earned a reputation for being one of the most advanced and dedicated facilities in the world by successfully performing more than 20,000 burn surgeries. New therapies such as allogeneic graft, xenogeneic graft, cultured cell graft and artificial skin graft have been applied to patients with severe burns in Korea.

In 2006, the center was designated as "The Emergency Center for Burn Care" by the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs. The center is equipped with the burn ICU and 200 burn-related beds, operating and treatment rooms and advanced equipment including silicon beds and sterilized water treatment machines.

Neurological Center

Patients with neurologic disorders should receive physical, cognitive and emotional therapies together. Therefore, the expertise of a highly coordinated team is crucial to determine the prognoses of patients.

At the neurological center, specialists in neurology, neurosurgery, radiology, rehabilitation, psychiatry and social service work in close partnership to accurately diagnose cerebrovascular disorders and determine the most appropriate treatment, using a variety of screening tools such as CT, MRI, PET-CT and angiography.

As soon as stroke patients arrive at the emergency room, data are automatically transferred through "The SMS Emergency Medical System" to a team of 30 stroke specialists via text messages. The system enables patients at risk to receive radiologic exams immediately at the department of radiology. At the same time, physicians upon receiving the messages rush to emergency rooms.

While the American Stroke Association recommends that a patient receive a CT scan within 25 minutes of hospital arrival, and thrombolysis within 60 minutes of diagnosis, we are shortening the intervals by more than 10 minutes and 15 minutes, respectively. Patients with stroke are at a very high risk of recurrence. Therefore, after discharge, our team including social workers continuously provides patients and their care givers with information about rehabilitation programs, financial support, and disability grading.

Ilsong Head-and-Neck Cancer Center

The Ilsong Head-and-Neck Cancer Center, as a pioneer in the field in Korea, has been exclusively devoted to treating head and neck cancers for about 20 years.

Most head-and-neck cancers grow in nose, mouth and throat including nasal cavity, paranasal sinuses, nasopharynx, oral cavity, larynx, salivary gland and thyroid gland. It is relatively difficult to detect a head-and-neck cancer in its early stage because it may have no specific symptom. When detected, it has already progressed. When identified later, surgery is required to remove a part of larynx, pharynx, tongue or face. Patients may experience serious sequelae.

The center provides patients with a unified process encompassing accurate diagnosis, surgical removal of tumors, minimization of physical defects and reconstructive, plastic surgery.

Multidisciplinary staffs from otorhinolaryngology-head and neck surgery, plastic surgery, hematology-oncology, radiation-oncology, radiology, pathology and rehabilitation medicine work closely together to treat patients, offering comprehensive care including diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and follow-up care.

The center has grown by leaps and bounds with clinical experiences in more than 1,400 surgeries every year. It has provided itself to be a nationally-recognized head and neck cancer center for many successful high-risk surgeries and excellent treatment outcomes.

Da Vinci Robotic Surgery Center

Hallym University Medical Center has initiated clinical use of the da Vinci Surgical Robotic System in September, 2007.

Using the system, the surgeon sits at a console and directs the arms which hold a camera, viewing a 3-D image of the surgical field. The system seamlessly translates the surgeon's hand, wrist and finger motions into precise movements of surgical instruments inside the patient.

The da Vinci Robot provides surgeons with greater precision, eliminating hand tremors and an increasing range of motion.

A robotic surgery only requires 3 to 5 small incisions, each about 5mm to 8mm in length with a shorter operating time.

For the patient, a da Vinci procedure can offer a variety of benefits such as less pain, a low risk of infection, less blood loss and less need for blood transfusion. Patients have a shorter hospital stay, a quicker recovery and a faster return to normal activities.

The da Vinci is being used for operations in urology (prostate cancer, bladder cancer, nephrectomy and pyeloplasty), surgery (stomach cancer, colorectal cancer, splenectomy and cholecystectomy), cardiac surgery (lung cancer, cardiac valve reconstruction, septal heart defects and coronary artery bypass graft) and gynecologic surgery.

Cardiovascular Center

The cardiovascular center provides patients with the latest advances in care for hypertension, heart failure, ischemic heart diseases such as angina pectoris and acute myocardial infarction, cardiac valve diseases including rheumatic valve disease and degenerative valve disease, and arrhythmia including bradycardia and tachycardia which is one of the main causes of sudden death in adults.

The center provides an around-the-clock emergency care system for patients, which enables physicians to perform emergency treatment within 30 minutes of patient's arrival.

It offers a full range of highly skilled diagnostic services including 24-hour motility, blood vessel spasm test and carotid artery ultrasonography for hypertension and atherosclerosis, holter monitor test for arrhythmia, transesophageal echo for cardiac valve and cardiac thrombus and head-up tilt table test for dysautonomia or syncope.

A coordinated group of specialists in cardiology, cardiac surgery, radiology, nuclear medicine and anesthesiology work to provide comprehensive care of the highest quality, ensuring that patients receive the best services with the most advanced technology.

The support group at the center helps patients and their families join educational programs on treatment and prevention. At the same time, a variety of up-to-date educational programs are also provided to ordinary citizens as well as patients.

Digestive Disease Center

An experienced team of health care professionals at the digestive disease center collaborates to provide patients with expert care and treatment options to fit their needs. Conducting basic and clinical research on digestive diseases with physicians in laboratory medicine, radiology and pathology, they work closely with surgeons to perform operations. For the treatment of a biliary tract disease and a liver cancer, they work with radiologists. For patients who may need chemotherapy, the center works carefully with physicians in hematology-oncology.

The center operates clinics for upper gastrointestine, colon, small intestine and liver-pancreas-gallbladder. The latest screening and diagnostic services include upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, colonoscopy, small intestinal endoscopy, cholangiopancreatography, endoscopic ultrasonography, pathological test, ultrasonography, CT, MRI, MD-CT and PET-CT. The other cutting-edge technologies offered by the center are endoscopic hemostasis for gastroduodenal ulcer bleeding and esophageal varix, polypectomy, resection for early gastric cancer and removal of a biliary duct stone and drainage.

The combined knowledge and expertise of specialists at the center allows patients to receive advanced treatments and thorough long-term follow-up care.

Respiratory-Allergy Center

The respiratory-allergy center offers comprehensive treatment for growing respiratory diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), allergic asthma and lung cancer.
Quality health care services are offered by multidisciplinary teams at the center which consists of specialists from respiratory-allergy, thoracic surgery, radiology, intervention and radiation-oncology.

Comprehensive exams on respiratory and allergy conditions are possible with a set of testing gear for bronchial provocation, cardiopulmonay function, fluorescent bronchoscopy, lung needle biopsy, bronchial artery embolization, and allergy and drug reaction.

For patients with COPD who do not respond to drug treatment, Lung Volume Reduction Surgery (LVRS) can be considered. The surgery is a procedure which removes part of the poorly functioning and space-occupying lung tissues from each lung so that breathing ability and lung capacity may be improved.

Along with skilled thoracic surgeons, experts use endoscopy or perform robot-assisted surgeries. The center has also organized systematic treatment programs for patients in need of intensive care.

To seek active patient participation in treatment, the center provides leaflets on respiratory-allergy diseases. Experienced nurses carry out one-on-one education on inhalant use. The facility operates a management system to drum up support from a disease control service for patients with tuberculosis or asthma.

Cancer Center

The cancer center has been dedicating itself to provide prompt, accurate diagnosis and effective treatment with advanced medical technologies.

The center offers the latest tool in screening and diagnostic services, including a digital mammography, 64 channel CT, MRI for brain tumors, head-and-neck cancers, gynecological cancers and spine tumors and PET-CT, which is designed to detect the whole body for cancer. Also we provide a CT simulator for radiation therapy, image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT), intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and a Varian iX linear accelerator for respiratory gating radiation therapy.

IMRT is an advanced type of high-precision radiation. The customized radiation dose is intended to maximize tumor dose while simultaneously protecting the surrounding normal tissue. This may result in better tumor targeting, lessened side effects, and improved treatment outcomes than even 3DCRT.

IGRT is used to direct radiation therapy utilizing the imaging coordinates of the actual radiation treatment plan. The goal is to improve the accuracy of the radiation field placement, and to reduce the exposure of healthy tissue during radiation treatments.

Respiratory gating is new technology that synchronizes radiation treatment to a patient's breathing pattern. Respiratory gating improves the accuracy of radiation treatment and reduce the damage to surrounding healthy organs.

A multidisciplinary group of care providers work together to determine the best treatment options, meeting the needs of each patient and delivering superior treatment outcomes.

Spine Center

Those with spine disorders are required to be treated with high quality medical care by spine specialists. The spine center of Hallym was established to become one of the best spine centers in the world. It has provided patients with effective and comprehensive medical treatment, while strengthening its specialties and enhancing research ability. The center is operated by a group of professional care providers from orthopaedic surgery, neurosurgery, and rehabilitation medicine.

The center is equipped with high-tech medical equipment including a 3D C-arm, a spine surgical microscope, and a neuromonitoring system, which helps reducing risks during surgery. By using these medical units, experts are able to provide comprehensive diagnostic and treatment options for patients.

Hallym's spine center is called a mecca of high-risk cervical vertebroplasty in the nation. It has been pioneering in all kinds of cervical spine surgery for years. The professors of the center mainly perform midline splitting double-door laminoplasty to minimize the risk of nerve damages. To prevent closing of an exposed nerve in the back, professionals expand its space by spacer after splitting the midline. This skill makes the space of neural tube expand symmetry, and reduce the risk of nerve adhesion. The midline splitting double door laminoplasty shows significant effectiveness in patients' adoptability and rehabilitation, compared with former one which was conducted from the midline to only one side.

Another strategy of the center is the surgery of an artificial disk in the cervical spine, which was introduced by this center in November 2003. The practice has enabled the center to enjoy a unique standing in the nation.

Breast Center

Patients with breast disorders are generally required to take the trouble of visiting hospitals more than twice for diagnoses, examinations, and consultations. Hallym's breast center, however, offers a patient-oriented one-stop service. During their first visit, patients get medical exams, breast ultrasound, mammography, mammotome biopsy, preventive education of breast cancer and consultations on breast disorders at a time. The center has recently taken a one-stop approach to meet the diverse needs of customers who end up being highly satisfied with rapid and accurate diagnoses and treatments.

Cutting-edge medical equipment including a high resolution ultrasound unit and a PET-CT help the center with accurate diagnosis of patients even with early lesions. Its multidisciplinary care team guarantees high quality treatment.

Meanwhile, we have been giving lectures to a group of patients who had breast cancer surgeries and their families, and inviting them to concerts and joyful events supported by departments of general surgery, radiology, obstetrics and gynecology, nursing, and social workers.

The staff members are also active in their clinical research by publishing papers based on their clinical experiences and studies, and holding annual international symposiums.

Arthroplasty Center

Hallym's arthroplasty center takes a one-stop health care approach for the benefit of patients. Through consultations with nurse practitioners, patients are provided with formulated clinical treatment including appointments, medical care, hospitalization, surgery, post-surgery care, discharge, and treatment after discharge. Patients who underwent arthroplasty are required to be monitored constantly, so that the center can put together a patient managing program after surgery.

The center is using advanced semipermanent materials for surgery, and has brought a computer-assisted navigation system which helps reducing surgical errors. A minimal invasive surgery helps patients with their prompt recovery.

The computer-assisted navigation system is one of the most up-to-date surgical technologies. By using an infrared ray, a navigator, and a camera, the system displays a three-dimensional image of an accurate surgical position.

The center consists of various rooms for special treatment such as an outpatient room, a consultation room, a special lab, a rehabilitation room, a clean room only for arthroplasty and a special ward.

Center for Cardiovascular & Cerebrovascular Intervention

The Center for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular intervention consists of three groups: a cardiovascular group; a cerebrovascular group; and a general vascular group. With its newly adopted vascular intervention skills, it has been providing the best medical care to patients who are suffering from vascular diseases.

With the help of cutting-edge X-ray units and state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging technology, the new and specialized surgery of vascular intervention enables specialists to provide highly skilled care to people with vascular problems such as peripheral vascular diseases, uterine myomas, varicose veins and liver cancers.

The center has been concerned with various vascular disorders such as abnormal body fluid collection and leakage, abdominal aortic aneurysm, arteriovenous fistula of hemodialysis patients, arterial occlusion, phlebothrombosis, central vein cannulation for a long-term supplying of fluid or anticancer medication, replacement of catheters, embolization of uterine myoma, hemangioma, lymphangioma and radiofrequency cautery for thyroid nodule.

The vascular intervention is a new type of surgical treatment without opening or incising a chest. It does not require general anesthesia, imposing fewer physical burdens on patients, creating less pain, and promoting fast recovery.

Transplantation Center

The transplantation center is designated to give new life to patients whose organs are not able to get any better by medical treatment. It has been transplanting organs donated from living body of brain-death patients to most suitable recipients.

The transplantation team consists of professionals of surgery, gastroenterology, nephrology, urology, plastic surgery, anesthesiology, laboratory medicine, and radiology, and transplant coordinating nurses. The facility has shown a new vision of organ transplantation in Korea, marking 95 percent of successful rates despite its rather short history. The center has offered 400 cases of kidney, 55 cases of liver, and 5 cases of pancreas and kidney transplantation. It has also been doing clinical research and animal experiments.

The center is well known as the first transplantation facility which succeeded in pancreas transplantation in the nation. In 2001, it performed a partial liver transplantation between an adult and an adult, and also between an adult and a kid. With the success of pancreas and kidney transplantation, it is now famed as a multi-organ transplantation facility.

The center is striving to enhance the survival rate of recipients by devoting itself to medical research and education.

Health Promotion Center

With broad experience and highly advanced training, specialists at the health promotion center conduct a wide range of medical examinations. Earlier diagnoses of disorders are detected by the center's cutting-edge equipment: PET-CT, CT, MRI, digital mammography, digital retinal camera, endoscope, ultrasound scanner, cardiac ultrasound, SPECT and body-fat analyzer.

Through consultations with the medical coordinators who take into account the family history, personal medical history, life style, dietary habit, age, a subjective symptom, and personal interest, a check-up program is individualized for each person. Customers from a long distance are able to join a one-day medical check-up which provides them with the results and follow-through consultations on the same day.

After check-ups, professional nurses offer consultations on health management which make the center able to provide constant health care. If the abnormal results are detected, the patients can be immediately and appropriately treated with a multidisciplinary approach.

Cervical Incompetency Clinic

Cervical incompetence is a medical condition in which a pregnant woman's cervix opens before her pregnancy has reached term, and her amnion protrudes like a balloon, and she finally loses her baby as her amniotic fluid leaks. The pregnancy term is divided into three periods. The symptom mostly comes out between the late second period and the early third period, which is between the 16th and the 26th weeks of pregnancy, causing preterm delivery and pain. The symptom can be diagnosed by accurate ultrasound, and it is preventable by suturing the incompetent cervix at the 13th or 14th week.

Pregnant women who have not experienced pregnancy or cervical incompetence might usually overlook this symptom. However, the mortality rate of premature babies due to cervical incompetence is rather high. Even most survivors suffer from complications such as respiratory distress syndrome and neuropathy.

In 1998, the clinic conducted the first rescue cerclage in our nation's history, in the case of a 21-week pregnancy with cervical dilatation and membrane bulging, and saved the baby. Today the clinic has performed and continues to perform the largest number of operations in Korea, with the highest success rate. Recently, the center succeeded for the first time in the world in delivery of twins through transabdominal cevicoisthmic cerclage after radical trachelectomy and laparoscope assisted pelvic node dissection, for a cervical cancer patient.

Retinal Clinic

The retina is a light-sensitive tissue lining the inner surface of the eye. The optics of the eye create an image of the visual world on the retina, which serves much the same function as the film in a camera. Light striking the retina initiates a cascade of chemical and electrical events that ultimately trigger nerve impulses. These are sent to various visual centers of the brain through the fibers of the optic nerve. The retinal clinic was open to take better care of patients who are suffering from retinal disorders caused by aging and by adult diseases including diabetes and hypertension.

The clinic is operated by well-trained retinal specialists including ophthalmologists, residents, and technical staffs, taking care of 12,000 patients with 800 surgeries every year. The clinic has the most sophisticated medical equipment such as vitrectomy unit, phacoemulsification unit, cryothermy and endolaser.

For patients who are required to have surgery, the clinic organizes its surgery as soon as possible to reduce patients' anxiety. The center's ‘Day-Care System' allows patients a quick discharge only a few hours after the surgery, which helps patient reduce hospital charges.