Dermatology and Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Department

It is currently a key discipline development unit for traditional Chinese medicine under the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine’s “12th Five-Year Plan,” a National Key Clinical Specialty, a discipline with the strongest core competitiveness in Liaoning Province, a Liaoning Provincial Key Clinical Specialty, a key specialty of the Education Commission of Liaoning Province, a first-level key discipline of Dalian City, and a key discipline of the university. It is a doctoral program in Dermatology and Venereology and a doctoral program in Integrative Dermatology and Venereology at Dalian Medical University. It is currently the National Eczema and Dermatitis Research Base, a national-level demonstration base for dermatological medical cosmetology, a Research Center for the Integrative Treatment of Severe Psoriasis, and a national drug research base.

The overall objective of discipline development is: to reach a first-class domestic level in clinical diagnosis and treatment capabilities, the development of subspecialties, scientific management, technological innovation, and other aspects.

At present, there are 15 staff members with senior professional titles, 3 with associate-senior titles, and 8 with intermediate and junior titles. There are 2 doctoral supervisors and 12 master’s supervisors. Fourteen people hold doctoral degrees and 6 hold master’s degrees. Among the nurses, 12 have intermediate-level titles and 9 have junior-level titles. Six of the current physicians have previously gone abroad for study and advanced training. The discipline leader, Professor Song Zhiqi, is a national committee member of the Dermatology and Venereology Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, a national standing committee member of the Dermatology and Venereology Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, and a national committee member of the Dermatology and Venereology Branch of the Chinese Association of Integrative Medicine. A total of 5 people in the department serve as deputy chairs, standing committee members, or committee members of national- or provincial-level professional societies, and 4 are editorial board members of national- and provincial-level professional journals. The department has undertaken 12 National Natural Science Foundation projects and received one second prize for scientific and technological progress from the Ministry of Education, two second prizes for scientific and technological progress from the provincial government, and two municipal first prizes.

The main subspecialty directions are:

Difficult and severe skin diseases

This direction involves the diagnosis and treatment of various difficult and severe skin diseases, including toxic epidermal necrolysis, Steven-Johnson syndrome, severe psoriasis, sterile pustular disease, pemphigus, pemphigoid, pyoderma gangrenosum, scleroderma, connective tissue diseases such as dermatomyositis and lupus erythematosus, mycosis fungoides, various forms of erythroderma, pityriasis rubra pilaris, febrile neutrophilic dermatosis, and various types of vasculitis. In the diagnosis of bullous diseases, this discipline is currently the only institution in the region that performs autoantibody testing for bullous diseases. Combined with direct immunofluorescence testing and skin pathology testing, it has become the regional testing center for bullous skin diseases. For the diagnosis and treatment of dermatomyositis complicated by pulmonary fibrosis, HRCT and monitoring of various myositis-specific antibodies have been carried out, together with early intervention, achieving relatively good efficacy. For the treatment of systemic scleroderma and its complications, an integrative Chinese and Western medicine approach is used, achieving satisfactory efficacy. For the diagnosis and treatment of sterile pustular disease, new immunosuppressants, biologic agents, and Chinese medicines are used in combination, increasing the cure rate and delaying recurrence. For the treatment of atopic dermatitis, a combination of medication and physical therapy is used, greatly increasing the patients’ cure rate and prolonging the remission period. The department’s dermatopathology and immunopathology experts provide strong support for the diagnosis of various difficult skin diseases and have repeatedly been the first in China to report difficult and rare cases.

Specialized treatment of vitiligo

It has a vitiligo treatment center with a certain degree of regional reach. Closely following the international forefront of development, it maintains a first-class domestic level and promotes standardized treatment of vitiligo. Although there are currently many methods for treating vitiligo in China, satisfactory treatment methods are still lacking for some cases of refractory non-segmental vitiligo. For refractory vitiligo, this discipline has developed a number of new technologies, including carbon dioxide fractional laser, epidermal grafting, and cell transplantation, has obtained one national invention patent, and has achieved good efficacy.

Specialized treatment of skin laser cosmetology and facial skin diseases

Our department was the first in the three northeastern provinces to establish a laser cosmetology center in 1998. It introduced the Versepulse four-wavelength laser from the U.S. company Coherent, which was the first cosmetic laser device in Northeast China. Twenty years after the center was established, it now possesses the U.S. Lumenis ONE intense pulsed light therapy device, the U.S. Acupulse CO2 fractional laser therapy device, the U.S. Lightsheer semiconductor laser hair-removal device, the German 694nm ruby laser therapy device, the U.S. MedliteC6 laser therapy device, gold microneedles, Shumin Expert, a photodynamic therapy device, red and blue light, and other equipment. It can treat pigmented skin diseases, including nevus of Ota, freckles, café-au-lait spots, tattoos, senile spots, chloasma, post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, and steroid dermatitis; vascular skin diseases, such as port-wine stains, telangiectasia, and rosacea; and scar repair, including traumatic surgical scars, acne scars, and keloids. It can also perform photorejuvenation, acne treatment, photodamage treatment, and minimally invasive gold-microneedle treatment for axillary osmidrosis. At the same time, comprehensive treatment of acne and facial dermatitis is carried out using red and blue light, , yellow light, photodynamic therapy, and integrated Chinese and Western medicine.

Dermatologic surgery

This discipline performs excision and wide excision of malignant tumors such as cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma and basal cell carcinoma in the face and other parts of the body, combined with intraoperative frozen-section examination for rapid diagnosis, achieving complete excision of the tumor at the cytological level. It also performs combined treatments for cutaneous carcinoma in situ, including photodynamic therapy and drug occlusion therapy. Excision of various benign tumors and skin growths in skin tissue throughout the body is routinely performed, using advanced surgical techniques to ensure good postoperative healing, and has received new-technology awards many times. At present, the department is supported by one project each from the Provincial Science and Technology Commission, the Education Commission, and the Ministry of Education’s Scientific Research Startup Fund for Returned Overseas Students, as well as one project from the Municipal Science and Technology Commission.

Integrative Chinese and Western medicine treatment of severe psoriasis

While applying clinical syndrome differentiation and treatment according to the theories and principles of traditional Chinese medicine, this discipline uses basic-research methods to develop new drugs and explores scientific and systematic testing methods to determine the efficacy of Chinese medicines. It has completed multiple international multicenter clinical drug research projects and accumulated extensive clinical experience in treating psoriasis with biologic agents. The phototherapy room has NB-UVB, 308nm excimer light, UVA, and other whole-body and localized phototherapy devices for physical treatment of psoriasis, with few adverse effects and lasting efficacy.

Diagnosis and treatment of allergic skin diseases

This discipline can currently perform testing for various allergens. For the diagnosis and treatment of various allergic skin diseases, including acute and chronic urticaria, angioneurotic edema, eczema, drug eruptions, and contact dermatitis, it has established a series of discipline-specific diagnosis and treatment systems ranging from diagnosis to patient management.

Diagnosis and treatment of bacterial and fungal skin diseases

The distinctive feature of this research direction is that, starting from clinical needs, it identifies the mycological characteristics and genotypes of superficial fungi such as Trichophyton rubrum and Microsporum, which cause dermatophytosis, and of Sporothrix, the pathogenic fungus of deep fungal diseases. It addresses, at the genetic level, the problems of rapid diagnosis, effective treatment, and prevention of fungal diseases. At the same time, antifungal drugs and treatment methods are screened and optimized clinically to improve treatment outcomes. It was the first to carry out fluorescence detection of cutaneous fungal pathogens; the method is rapid and accurate and ensures the positive detection rate for various fungal skin diseases. The diagnosis of bacterial skin diseases such as erysipelas, folliculitis, and cutaneous tuberculosis, as well as their treatment with integrated Chinese and Western medicine, has also become a distinctive feature of the discipline.

Diagnosis and standardized treatment of sexually transmitted diseases

At present, in the diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, routine examination and treatment can be performed for gonorrhea, non-gonococcal urethritis/vaginitis, syphilis, and condyloma acuminatum. For the treatment of condyloma acuminatum, which has an extremely high recurrence rate, a comprehensive treatment approach is used, including topical medications, cryotherapy, local block therapy, microwave therapy, and photodynamic therapy. Virological monitoring is also performed at the same time, achieving definite efficacy and greatly reducing the recurrence rate.

Specialized treatment of vascular skin diseases

With the development of the dermatopathology subspecialty in this discipline, the diagnostic level for various common and rare vascular skin diseases, including Behçet’s disease, allergic vasculitis, allergic purpura, and acute febrile neutrophilic dermatosis, has reached an advanced domestic level. Based on the discipline’s distinctive features of early diagnosis, early intervention, long-term follow-up, and integrated Chinese and Western medicine treatment for these diseases, ideal efficacy has been achieved.

Plastic and cosmetic surgery

The many treatments carried out in plastic and cosmetic surgery are renowned for their high quality and advanced technology, especially difficult operations such as cosmetic surgery of the five facial features, comprehensive eye and nose reconstruction, cosmetic breast surgery, and facial contour modification. Combining advanced Korean technology, it has established a collaborative relationship with Seoul University in Korea and regularly dispatches personnel to Korea to study advanced plastic and cosmetic techniques, serving people throughout the country who seek beauty and creating favorable conditions for improving people’s quality of life. It also conducts surgical cooperation with other relevant surgical departments of the hospital, such as breast reconstruction after mastectomy for breast cancer jointly performed with the breast surgery department; scalp flap repair jointly performed with neurosurgery; male intimate plastic surgery jointly performed with urology and andrology; perineal plastic surgery jointly performed with gynecology; and nasal deformity repair jointly performed with otolaryngology.