Surgical Anaesthesia

The Department of Surgical Anesthesiology of China-Japan Friendship Hospital was established in 1984. The department is responsible for anesthesia for all types of surgery throughout the hospital, emergency resuscitation, and the treatment of various forms of acute pain. It has 50 modern laminar-flow clean operating rooms, including 24 in the Main Hospital Surgical Building, 11 in Outpatient Surgery Department II, 7 in the West District Operating Room, 5 in the North District Operating Room, and 3 plastic surgery operating rooms. These include 6 integrated operating rooms, 2 hybrid operating rooms, and 2 negative-pressure operating rooms. The post-anesthesia care unit has 22 beds. More than 50,000 operations are performed annually, covering all surgical specialties. As one of the world’s eight major lung transplant centers, our hospital also performs liver and kidney transplantation on a substantial scale. The department’s anesthesia techniques for pulmonary endarterectomy, lung transplantation, including bilateral lung transplantation, and combined coronary artery bypass grafting and carotid endarterectomy are at a leading level nationally. In addition, the Department of Surgical Anesthesiology routinely provides painless induced abortion, labor analgesia, painless endoscopy, and other services.

Building on traditional anesthesia, the department continuously introduces new concepts and technologies. In addition to the extensive use of laryngeal masks, it has fully implemented tracheal intubation guided by rigid bronchoscopy, video laryngoscopy, and fiberoptic bronchoscopy. Combined with the application of ventilation technologies such as high-frequency jet ventilation and high-frequency oscillatory ventilation, this gives the department distinctive expertise in managing difficult airways. As ultrasound technology has become increasingly widespread, many anesthesiologists in the department have become proficient in ultrasound-guided nerve blocks and vascular puncture, as well as TEE and other techniques. The post-anesthesia care unit has 22 beds, including 2 pediatric beds, and plays an important role in preventing and treating anesthesia complications and improving operating-room efficiency.

Department personnel:

The current department director is Professor Zhao Jing, chief physician and doctoral supervisor. She graduated from Peking Union Medical College and served for many years as deputy director of the Department of Anesthesiology at Peking Union Medical College Hospital and deputy head of an academic division at Peking Union Medical College. She has worked and undertaken further training many times at medical centers in the United States, Canada, and Europe. She has extensive experience and strong enthusiasm for building teaching teams, standardized training, and introducing advanced educational concepts. She has repeatedly been named an outstanding teacher at the hospital or university level and led the Peking Union anesthesiology teaching team to receive Peking Union Medical College’s “Excellent Teaching Team Award.”

Professor Zhao Jing has made outstanding contributions to the prevention and treatment of perioperative allergic reactions. She established the only domestic team dedicated to perioperative allergen testing, testing anesthetic allergens for patients from across the country and selecting safe alternative drugs for more than 100 critically ill patients with allergies, enabling them to safely undergo anesthesia for subsequent operations. Commissioned by the Medical Administration Bureau of the National Health Commission, she led the first nationwide epidemiological survey of perioperative allergic reactions and established a national database. She led the Department of Surgical Anesthesiology of China-Japan Friendship Hospital in establishing a lung-transplant anesthesia team, helping ensure that China-Japan Friendship Hospital became one of the world’s eight major lung transplant centers. Whether caring for the world’s youngest lung-transplant child or a patient with severely impaired cardiopulmonary function and massive intraoperative bleeding, she has courageously led her team in skillfully turning crises around and extending lives. She took the lead in establishing the Anesthesiology Professional Committee of the Chinese Women Physicians Association and served as its first chairperson, calling on female anesthesiologists to unite and work pragmatically. The Women Physicians Anesthesiology Professional Committee is a platform for 45,000 female anesthesiologists nationwide. In addition to academic exchange, it has carried out many public science-outreach activities and has received broad recognition.

Professor Zhang Yajun, deputy director of the department and associate chief physician, graduated from Beijing Medical University in 1994 with a Bachelor of Medicine degree; in 1999, he graduated from the Graduate School of Peking Union Medical College with a Doctor of Medicine degree. In 2005, he went to the University of Tokyo in Japan for training in liver-transplant anesthesia. In 2016, he went to Duke University in the United States for training in lung-transplant anesthesia. In 2017, he went to the University of California, San Diego, for training in anesthesia for pulmonary artery surgery. He attended the annual American CTEPH meetings in 2018 and 2019. He has extensive clinical anesthesia experience and is deeply trusted by surgeons and patients. He undertakes preoperative evaluation and consultation for all kinds of complex and critically ill patients at our hospital, with particular expertise in anesthesia for children, anesthesia for noncardiac surgery in patients with heart disease, anesthesia for cardiac and great-vessel surgery, and complex and critical surgical anesthesia for lung transplantation and pulmonary endarterectomy. He has completed anesthesia for nearly 100 pulmonary endarterectomies and has presented his experience with anesthesia for such procedures many times at major academic conferences in China. He holds 2 national utility model patents. He also serves as a committee member of the Perioperative Committee of the Chinese Association of Integrative Medicine, an executive council member of the Anesthesiologists Branch of the Beijing Medical Doctor Association, and a member of the Beijing Resident Standardized Training Steering Committee. He previously served as deputy chair of the Youth Committee of the Anesthesiology Branch of the Beijing Medical Association. He has received such honors as Outstanding Party Member of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, Outstanding Teacher of Peking University Health Science Center, and Outstanding Young and Middle-aged Physician in Beijing.

Professor Li Weixia, deputy director of the department and associate chief physician, specializes in perioperative ultrasound techniques, including transesophageal echocardiography, ultrasound-guided nerve blocks and puncture techniques, cardiothoracic anesthesia, and anesthesia for organ transplantation. From June to August 2016, she studied cardiothoracic anesthesia and perioperative transesophageal echocardiography at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the United States, during which she obtained the American advanced qualification certificate in perioperative transesophageal echocardiography. She is head of the department’s cardiac ultrasound subspecialty group and is responsible for the management and training of ultrasound-guided nerve blocks and perioperative cardiac ultrasound. She holds a number of academic positions, including committee member and academic secretary of the Anesthesiology Professional Committee of the Chinese Women Physicians Association, national committee member of the Pain Branch of the Chinese Society of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesiology, and committee member of the Anesthesia and Analgesia Professional Committee of the Bethune Charitable Foundation.

The department currently has 53 physicians, including 1 chief physician, 4 associate chief physicians, 28 attending physicians, and 20 resident physicians. Personnel with master’s and doctoral degrees, including dual doctoral degrees, account for as much as 90% of the department. There are also 3 anesthesia nurses and 6 technical staff members.

The department has 5 instructors certified by the American Heart Association in advanced and basic life support, ACLS+BLS, and 2 additional nurses who are BLS instructors. The simulation teaching team has extensive experience in teaching and simulation training. Professor Slinger of Toronto General Hospital, University of Toronto, and Professor Bardenheuer of Heidelberg University Hospital in Germany have been specially appointed as honorary professors and provide the department with long-term academic guidance and exchange.

Outpatient and inpatient facilities:

The department has 50 fully equipped operating rooms in the Main Hospital, West District, and North District. Anesthesia services outside the operating rooms include gastrointestinal endoscopy rooms in the North District and International Medical Department, the Ultrasound Intervention Department, the bronchoscopy room, delivery rooms, catheterization rooms, and other areas.

Diagnostic and treatment equipment:

Every operating room in the department is equipped with advanced anesthesia machines, monitors, BIS monitors, invasive monitoring equipment, and infusion pumps. Emergency supplies and medications are fully stocked. The department also has difficult-airway carts, fiberoptic bronchoscopes, rigid bronchoscopes, video laryngoscopes, and other visualization tools for difficult airways, as well as bedside ultrasound, TEE, cardiac output monitors, blood gas analyzers, fluid warmers, rapid transfusion systems, cell salvage machines, warming and cooling equipment, neuromuscular-block monitoring devices, cerebral oxygen saturation monitors, and other equipment. These comprehensive hardware resources provide adequate support for anesthesia during complex operations in critically ill patients.

Distinctive diagnostic and treatment services:

The department performs more than 50,000 operations annually. From 2019 to 2020, it performed 57 pulmonary endarterectomies, 175 lung transplants, including bilateral lung transplants, 190 kidney transplants, 650 bariatric operations, and 8 liver transplants. In addition, the Department of Surgical Anesthesiology routinely provides painless induced abortion, labor analgesia, painless endoscopy, and other services.

Existing specialty clinics:

The International Medical Department Anesthesia Specialist Clinic for Allergies and the General Anesthesia Preoperative Assessment Clinic are currently available.

Research achievements:

The department has undertaken a total of 23 projects, including national-level projects, provincial- and ministerial-level projects, talent-introduction funds, collaborative research funds, hospital-based funds, and social funds.

Teaching:

The department is a Beijing anesthesia teaching base for standardized training.

The department provides internship and clinical-observation teaching for students of Peking University Health Science Center and Beijing University of Chinese Medicine.

The department is an American Heart Association resuscitation training base.

Under the leadership of Director Zhao Jing, the department has established a relatively comprehensive and distinctive standardized residency-training system: 1. a mentor system; 2. extensive systematic and theoretical study; 3. a five-in-one skills-training system; 4. scenario-simulation-based thinking training; 5. a standardized assessment system; 6. support from partner institutions. It promotes the new educational concept of being “learner-centered” and emphasizes humanistic care. With competency development as its core, it seeks comprehensive and coordinated development of knowledge, skills, clinical reasoning, and research ability. At the same time, it emphasizes comprehensive competency development in doctor-patient communication, mental health, and other areas.

Honors:

Director Zhao Jing received the National March 8th Red-Banner Pacesetter award.

The department has received the China-Japan Friendship Hospital Advanced Collective Award, the Major Special-Project Work Award, and the Excellent Teaching Collective Award. Key members of the department have repeatedly received honors including National Outstanding Resident Physician, Peking University Outstanding Resident Physician, Beijing Outstanding Teaching Administrator, and China-Japan Friendship Hospital Outstanding Clinical Instructor.

Other important matters:

Every year, the department selects key personnel to participate in the hospital’s counterpart-assistance activities, national medical team activities, and public-welfare activities such as neurosurgical trips to Tibet to provide assistance to children with cerebral palsy.

The department has established a China-U.S. transplant anesthesia collaboration platform and has successfully held 3 China-Japan Friendship Hospital Forums on Transplant Anesthesia and Perioperative Organ Protection.

Hospital location:

The department’s general outpatient clinic is on the 3rd floor of the Outpatient Building; the International Medical Department specialist clinic is in the International Medical Department Outpatient Building; the Central Operating Room is on floors 2–5 of the Main Hospital Surgical Building; Operating Room II is on the 4th floor of Building D of the Main Hospital; the West District Operating Room is on the 8th floor of the West District Inpatient Department; the North District Operating Room is on the 3rd floor of the North District Surgical Building; and the painless gastrointestinal endoscopy operating room is on the 3rd floor of the International Medical Department Outpatient Building.

Department telephone numbers:

Operating Room Front Desk: 010-84205871

Post-Anesthesia Care Unit: 010-84205882/5883