Thoracic Surgery II

The Second Department of Thoracic Surgery was established in 2014 and has 38 beds. In 2021, the department performed 1,396 operations in total, including 1,352 level-IV operations, accounting for 96.8% of all operations. The department specializes in various highly complex thoracic surgeries, such as sleeve resection for lung cancer with bronchial reconstruction, radical esophagectomy for esophageal cancer using the colon as an esophageal substitute, and resection of giant intrathoracic tumors. Our department was the first in southern Liaoning to perform advanced procedures including combined pulmonary subsegment resection, non-intubated lung cancer surgery, bilateral lung surgery through a subxiphoid incision, and robotic radical surgery for lung cancer using the da Vinci system.

The “two-port” and “single-port” thoracoscopic techniques pioneered by Director Lei Ting have become routine surgical techniques in our department. For extremely early-stage lung cancer, we perform thoracoscopic segmentectomy and combined subsegmentectomy. On the basis of precise lesion removal, these procedures cause less trauma to the lung tissue, preserve more pulmonary function, and greatly shorten patients’ hospital stays. In 2018, we successfully began performing non-intubated lung cancer surgery, as well as treating lung cancer, mediastinal tumors, palmar hyperhidrosis, and other conditions without a chest drainage tube or urinary catheter. Bilateral lung surgery through a subxiphoid incision has also been performed in our department; through a minimally invasive subxiphoid incision, bilateral mediastinal and pulmonary lesions can be treated simultaneously, avoiding injury to the intercostal nerves and greatly reducing postoperative pain. For patients with multiple pulmonary nodules, our department has recently introduced CT-guided radiofrequency ablation. In April 2019, Director Lei Ting was the first in southern Liaoning to perform robotic radical surgery for lung cancer using the da Vinci system. Through a three-dimensional surgical field, tissues can be located and instruments operated clearly and accurately, providing patients with safe and precise minimally invasive surgery.

In the field of scientific research, under the leadership of Director Lei Ting, our department obtained one project funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China in 2021. The department is committed to individualized treatment and has proposed a comprehensive treatment approach combining multidisciplinary and multimodal treatment with liquid biopsy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy. By establishing the most suitable individualized treatment plans, we promote the standardization and scientific development of lung cancer diagnosis and treatment, improve patients’ survival rates and quality of survival, and bring hope to numerous patients.