General Surgery Center

The General Surgery Center is the lead institution of the Department of General Surgery at Capital Medical University, the designated chairing institution for the Beijing Quality Control and Improvement Center for General Surgery and the Beijing Quality Control and Improvement Center for Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery, and is also a participating unit of the National Clinical Research Center for Digestive Diseases and the National Key Laboratory of Digestive Health, as well as the General Surgery Subcenter of the Beijing Digestive Disease Center; General Surgery and the Liver Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Center are National Clinical Key Specialties; Digestive Surgery is a key medical specialty under the Yangfan Program of the Beijing Municipal Hospital Authority; and the center has been recognized as a Beijing Employee Innovation Studio.

The General Surgery Center currently has more than 300 medical and nursing personnel, researchers, and medical technical personnel, forming a high-level innovative team with a well-structured talent echelon and excellence in both clinical care and research. The center has 464 beds in total, more than 300,000 outpatient and emergency visits annually, over 10,000 operations annually, and an average length of stay of 5.9 days. Minimally invasive operations account for 65%; the proportion of laparoscopic minimally invasive operations—including hepatectomy, radical surgery for gastric and colorectal cancer, and bariatric and metabolic surgery—reaches at least 90% in each category, and the center has consistently ranked among the top in Beijing in the comprehensive evaluation of national key specialties.

The center currently comprises 7 subspecialties: Thyroid and Breast Surgery, Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Gastrointestinal Surgery, Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery, Liver Transplantation Surgery, Acute Abdominal Surgery, and Geriatric Surgery; it also provides day-surgery treatment and comprehensive treatment for digestive system tumors. Each subspecialty has distinct strengths and advances through collaboration and synergy; their treatment scope covers all disease categories in general surgery; for common and frequently occurring diseases, as well as difficult, acute, and critical illnesses, they provide high-quality clinical diagnosis and treatment and implement cutting-edge minimally invasive surgical techniques, with robot-assisted surgery as a representative example.

The Department of Thyroid and Breast Surgery is one of the earliest departments in China to perform endoscopic breast surgery; it is also one of the earliest departments in Beijing to perform endoscopic thyroid surgery and one of those with the highest annual surgical volumes, while taking cosmetic outcomes and quality of life into account alongside disease treatment.

The Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery specializes in the minimally invasive treatment of malignant tumors of the liver, biliary tract, and pancreas and biliary tract stones; its diagnostic and treatment scope covers all benign and malignant hepatobiliary and pancreatic diseases; it has a distinct advantage in single-port laparoscopic surgery, and multiple specialized minimally invasive techniques, including combined procedures using two scopes and three scopes, rank among the leading practices in Beijing.

The Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery is one of the earliest departments in China to perform laparoscopic treatment of gastrointestinal tumors and surgery for gastroesophageal reflux disease, with an average annual surgical volume of nearly 3,000 cases; at least 95% of its operations are minimally invasive and laparoscopic. It pioneered ultra-low anal-preserving surgery for rectal cancer, neoadjuvant immunotherapy, and a series of international and domestic clinical studies, incorporating the “Chinese solution” for precision treatment of rectal cancer into the international diagnosis and treatment system. The Department of Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery was the first in China to be established as an independent department; its development model emphasizes coordinated development of clinical care, education, and research, with equal emphasis on international exchange; it performs more than 500 operations annually and has more than 5,000 outpatient visits annually; it is one of China’s leading centers for the diagnosis and treatment of obesity and weight management and is renowned as the “national team for weight loss.” The Department of Liver Transplantation Surgery provides the full range of liver transplantation techniques and is the only center in Beijing able to perform pediatric liver transplantation, adult living-donor liver transplantation, and minimally invasive liver transplantation on a large scale. The center ranks first in Beijing in total number of liver transplants; pediatric liver transplants performed by the center account for at least 90% of all pediatric liver transplants in Beijing, and the 5-year survival rate has reached an internationally leading level.

The Department of Acute Abdominal Surgery is a highly specialized team with capabilities in treating acute and critical abdominal illnesses and managing multiple trauma and combined injuries, and has an independent functional ward. In the first phase, the ward opened with 24 beds; relying on the hospital’s diagnostic and treatment strengths, it is building a one-stop care system and is committed to creating a nationally leading center for treating acute and critical abdominal illnesses.

Geriatric Surgery focuses its development on the surgical intervention of common diseases in older adults and complex comorbidities; the average patient age is 78 years, the proportion of difficult and critically ill cases admitted exceeds 70%, and it has developed a significant technical advantage in the diagnosis and treatment of difficult cases in geriatric surgery.

After several generations of determined advancement and tireless effort, the General Surgery Center has developed into a department with strong overall capabilities and distinctive specialty features, placing equal emphasis on medical care, education, and research, closely following the forefront of academic development, boldly innovating and introducing new technologies, and holding a leading position in China. In recent years, the center has had 46 national-, provincial-, and ministerial-level projects approved, including National Key Special Projects and National Key R&D projects; it has published 184 high-quality SCI articles in JCR Q1, including articles in top-tier and authoritative international journals; it has led 36 important clinical guidelines and expert consensus statements; it has been granted 17 invention patents; and it has published more than 20 academic monographs, making an outstanding contribution to continuous innovation in general surgery.