Seoul's joint specialty hospital with its own stem cell laboratory and a long publication record on knee cartilage.
Yonsei Sarang opened in 2003, started by joint and spine specialists who had trained at Yonsei University Severance, and moved to Bangbae-dong in Seocho-gu in 2008. It is a hospital rather than a clinic: inpatient wards, its own operating theatres, and five departments covering orthopedics, neurosurgery, anesthesiology and pain medicine, radiology and internal medicine, spread across two sites in Seocho. Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare has designated it a joint specialty hospital. Most of the volume is knee work, including a large artificial joint practice that uses 3D planning and custom instruments. The regenerative side runs out of a dedicated stem cell laboratory under hospital director Koh Yong-gon, and it is the reason the hospital is known outside Korea. Koh has published a long run of peer-reviewed work on fat-derived mesenchymal cells and stromal vascular fraction implanted into damaged knee cartilage, including randomised comparisons against microfracture alone and second-look arthroscopy showing what the repair tissue actually looked like a year or two later. The autologous fat stem cell procedure was selected by the Ministry of Health and Welfare as a limited medical technology, with Koh named as the physician responsible for carrying it out. That research posture is the thing that separates it from the injection clinics in Gangnam. Cells here are usually implanted during an arthroscopic procedure rather than injected in an outpatient room, which means an operation, an admission and a rehabilitation plan. There is also a clinical trial centre on site. For overseas patients the hospital keeps a separate stem cell website with English and Russian versions and an enquiry form, though the detailed clinical material is mostly in Korean and the main call centre operates in Korean.
Board-Certified Physicians
Local Health-Authority Registration
Research / Clinical-Trial Participation
Accreditations are records-based and do not imply endorsement of any treatment's safety or efficacy.
Starting from
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Nothing is published in English, and non-covered charges are listed in Korean only. The hospital quotes after imaging, because cost depends on the size of the cartilage lesion and whether the cell work is combined with an osteotomy in the same operation. Korean national insurance covers part of the bill for residents. Overseas patients pay privately, and should ask whether the quote includes the admission, theatre time and rehabilitation, not just the cells.
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3.3out of 5 on Google from 11 ratings
Google lists 3.3 from 11 reviews, and Google's own topic tally points at orthopedics, injections and therapy, with shoulder pain and finger among the terms reviewers mention. On WhatClinic, three verified reviewers average 5.0 and write mainly about interpreter and coordinator support for non-Korean speakers, plus knee and shoulder procedures.
Most-mentioned on Google
Checked . Figures on the source may have changed since. View the Google listing
Reddit does not appear to have any discussion of Yonsei Sarang Hospital. Searches on the full name, the shortened Sarang Hospital name, the founder and the Gangnam location returned nothing naming this clinic. A Korean hospital information subreddit profiles other Seoul hospitals but has no entry for it.
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Koh Yong-gon
Hospital Director
MD, Orthopedic Surgery
Koh runs the hospital and its stem cell research laboratory, and he is the reason the name turns up in orthopedic journals rather than only in Korean media. His published work follows fat-derived mesenchymal cells and stromal vascular fraction implanted into knee cartilage defects, including a randomised trial against microfracture alone with two-year follow-up, and second-look arthroscopy studies that report what the repair tissue looked like on re-entry. When Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare listed the autologous fat stem cell procedure as a limited medical technology, he was named the responsible physician. He also fronts the hospital's public health broadcasting and its YouTube channel.
Kim Sung-jae
Honorary Director
MD, Professor of Orthopedic Surgery
Emeritus academic on the joint side of the hospital, brought in from university practice.
Kang Ho-jung
Honorary Director
MD, Professor of Orthopedic Surgery
Second honorary director, covering upper limb and hand surgery.
Jung Sung-hoon
Representative Director
MD, Orthopedic Surgery
Runs day-to-day clinical operations alongside Koh.
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