Department of Surgery

The Department of Surgery at Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine is a national regional center for traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis and treatment, as well as a national specialized construction unit for the advantages of traditional Chinese medicine. It is the largest and most advanced surgical discipline in the Chinese medicine system in terms of patient diagnosis and treatment, leading technology, scale, and strength. For three consecutive years, it has consistently ranked among the top in the national rankings of leading specialized departments in traditional Chinese medicine surgery, as published by Ailibi.

The Department of Surgery consists of 12 specialized departments: Hepatobiliary Surgery, Pancreatic Surgery, Gastrointestinal Surgery, Colorectal Surgery, Peripheral Vascular Surgery, Thyroid Surgery, Breast Surgery, Anal and Rectal Surgery, Urology, Organ Transplantation, Andrology, and Abdominal Pain Center. It comprises a total of 20 specialized departments. The hospital also has a dedicated research team for the application of traditional Chinese medicine during the perioperative period. Specialized wards and outpatient clinics are available at the main hospital on Dade Road, University City Hospital, Ersha Island Hospital, Fangcun Hospital, and Zhuhai Hospital. The department has over 520 surgical inpatient beds and is equipped with state-of-the-art medical research equipment, including the fourth-generation Da Vinci robotic surgical system, 3D ultra-high-definition laparoscope, and 4K high-definition laparoscope. The department handles an annual outpatient volume of 530,000 visits and over 30,000 inpatient cases, with an average length of stay of 4.9 days. The annual surgical volume reaches 26,000 cases.

The Department of Surgery possesses a strong technical strength and a well-structured talent pool. It is home to a group of renowned experts and scholars, including the nationally recognized TCM Master Lin Yi, as well as Cai Bingqin, Chen Zhiqiang, Tan Zhijian, Wan Jin, Wang Shusheng, Yuan Shaoying, and other distinguished specialists. Among them, there are three provincial-level renowned TCM practitioners and three national mentors in TCM experience inheritance and guidance. The department has 78 experts with senior professional titles, 168 physicians with graduate degrees, and 81.5% of the practicing physicians are specialized in traditional Chinese medicine. A total of 38 experts hold positions as chairpersons or vice chairpersons of national-level professional committees, or as chairmen of provincial-level professional committees. Many of them are also members of Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS), Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), and American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). The Department of Surgery possesses the ability to diagnose and treat a wide range of complex and difficult diseases, along with the technical expertise to conduct advanced international surgical procedures. It has pioneered several advanced surgical techniques in the country, including laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy with vascular reconstruction, precise liver resection under fluorescence-guided porta hepatis pre-processing, single-port-assisted laparoscopic Siewert II adenocarcinoma of esophagogastric junction radical resection, laparoscopic complete removal of the gastric omental bursa in gastric cancer surgery, and laparoscopic three-dimensional splenic hilar lymph node dissection.

The surgical discipline focuses on the main directions of "leveraging the advantages of combining traditional Chinese medicine and Chinese-Western medicine in the treatment of difficult and severe surgical diseases," "introducing, absorbing, and innovating minimally invasive surgical techniques," "applying and innovating traditional Chinese medicine during the perioperative period," and "applying external treatment and characteristic therapies in traditional Chinese medicine." It strives to promote the inheritance and innovative development of traditional Chinese medicine. Among them, "acute severe pancreatitis," "prostate cancer," "urolithiasis," "liver cancer," "granulomatous mastitis," and "breast cancer" have become the key areas where our hospital excels in traditional Chinese medicine. In the past five years, the department has undertaken over 120 research projects at various levels, including 15 national-level projects and more than 40 provincial and ministerial-level projects. It has published over 200 academic papers, including more than 100 SCI papers. The department has developed two formulations of traditional Chinese medicine, and it has led the development of 12 national clinical pathways, industry guidelines, and local standards. It has achieved 10 various research outcomes and has published over 30 monographs. Additionally, the department has obtained more than 40 patents.

The Department of Surgery undertakes the teaching tasks and internship programs for the Master's program in Traditional Chinese Medicine Surgery and Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Surgery, as well as the 7-year program, undergraduate, and college-level programs at Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine. It is a key course and discipline at the university and serves as a training base for domestic advanced students and students receiving standardized training. It is also a master's and doctoral cultivation site and a postdoctoral cooperative training site at Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine.

As a national regional center for traditional Chinese medicine surgery diagnosis and treatment and a national specialized construction unit for traditional Chinese medicine advantages, the Department of Surgery's regional influence has been increasing year by year. It accepts over 200 advanced students from both within and outside the province annually and hosts more than 20 national and provincial continuing education programs. It provides support to 16 counterpart institutions and conducts over 300 support activities, such as external charity clinics and consultations, each year. In 2022, it was selected as one of the first National Health Commission training bases for general surgery endoscopy physicians.

The Department of Surgery upholds the core philosophy of patient-centered care and prioritizes treatment effectiveness. With "treating the symptoms and the disease concurrently" as a key principle and approach, it integrates the advantages of both Chinese and Western medicine to provide patients with optimal diagnosis and treatment plans. The department is striving to become a national center for traditional Chinese medicine surgery diagnosis and treatment, a consultation center for traditional Chinese medicine surgery, a talent development center for traditional Chinese medicine surgery, and an academic exchange hub for traditional Chinese medicine surgery.