Orthopaedics

As a Guangdong Provincial clinical key specialty construction department, the department has built a solid health bulwark in regional orthopaedic care through its profound historical accumulation, forward-looking subspecialty layout, strong talent echelon and outstanding teaching and research strength. Over the years, the orthopaedics team has innovated while carrying forward its traditions and achieved breakthroughs while holding to its mission, restoring the strength and dignity of life for countless patients.

The Department of Orthopaedics of the Tenth Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University (Dongguan People's Hospital) has a long history. It is a Guangdong Provincial clinical key specialty construction specialty, a Dongguan clinical key specialty, a committee member unit of the Orthopaedics Professional Committee of the Chinese Medical Association, a vice-chair unit of the Orthopaedics Professional Committee of the Guangdong Medical Association and a vice-chair unit of the Orthopaedics Professional Committee of the Guangdong Medical Doctor Association. It is also the leading orthopaedic specialty of Dongguan, with considerable disciplinary influence in Dongguan and even across Guangdong Province.

The department is a member unit of the Guangdong Provincial Orthopaedic Quality Control Center, the chair unit of the Dongguan Orthopaedic Medical Quality Control Center, an initiating unit of the "Shenzhen–Dongguan–Huizhou–Zhongshan" Orthopaedic Quality Control Alliance, the chair unit of the Orthopaedics Branch of the Dongguan Medical Association, the Dongguan Key Laboratory for Basic Clinical and Digital Research on Common Orthopaedic Bone Diseases, a national-level standardised residency training base for orthopaedic surgery, an orthopaedics specialty base of the National Drug Clinical Trial Base, an orthopaedics specialty practice base of the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area specialty nurse education and certification programme, and a core network unit of the Guangdong Provincial Clinical Medical Research Center for Orthopaedic Diseases.

Integrating clinical care, teaching and research, the department has strong capacity for treating difficult, critical and severe cases. Its equipment configuration is advanced, including core equipment for complex orthopaedic surgery such as the surgical microscope, spinal endoscope, arthroscope, 3D C-arm, G-arm, O-arm, neurophysiological monitoring, navigation systems and surgical robots. With a high-quality professional medical and nursing team, the department has established the "Dongguan Emergency Rescue Rapid Mobile Unit" and the "Integrated Rapid Trauma Emergency Response System", and admits large numbers of patients with acute trauma and with difficult, critical and severe conditions from within the city, from surrounding areas, and even from outside the province, who come because of its reputation. In recent years, the specialty case mix index (CMI) has risen year by year, reflecting the continued improvement of the department's capacity to treat critical, severe and difficult diseases.

As the hospital makes every effort to build a high-level hospital, the Department of Orthopaedics, as one of the Guangdong Provincial clinical key specialty construction departments, has actively advanced subspecialty development, deepening its growth towards being more refined, more precise and stronger. At present, the hospital's orthopaedics service has formed a distinctly characterised subspecialty system: the Honglou Campus covers multiple subspecialties including spine orthopaedics, joint and sports medicine orthopaedics, bone and soft tissue oncology, paediatric orthopaedics and trauma orthopaedics; the Puji Campus has likewise completed the transformation towards refined subspecialty practice, comprising two wards, the Puji Campus Department of Orthopaedics and the Puji Campus Department of Foot and Ankle Repair and Reconstruction Orthopaedics.

I. Subspecialty System

(1) Honglou Campus Joint and Sports Medicine Orthopaedics

The Joint and Sports Medicine Orthopaedics subspecialty mainly treats various bone and joint diseases, including joint trauma, joint degeneration, joint deformity and joint infection. Its features are hip, knee and shoulder arthroplasty and arthroscopy, and its principal directions are the surgical treatment of joint diseases such as advanced osteoarthritis, femoral head necrosis, developmental dysplasia of the hip, rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis, together with arthroscopic minimally invasive treatment of injuries and degeneration of the shoulder, elbow, hip and knee joints.

Its surgical treatment integrates joint trauma, degeneration, deformity and infectious diseases. The subspecialty is well established in performing shoulder, hip and knee arthroplasty and revision, arthroscopic meniscoplasty and suturing, anterior and posterior cruciate ligament reconstruction of the knee, internal fixation of limb and joint fractures and other surgical treatments. In recent years, keeping pace with developments in international joint surgery, the subspecialty has continuously innovated on the basis of successfully performing conventional operations and has actively introduced new techniques, such as unicompartmental knee arthroplasty, HTO\DFO for knee osteoarthritis, hip arthroplasty via the DAAIOCM approach, and arthroscopic repair and reconstruction of shoulder labral and rotator cuff injuries, along with other minimally invasive treatments; a number of these techniques have reached the advanced level within China.

The subspecialty attaches importance to international exchange and cooperation. In recent years it has established close cooperative relations with the Vitos Orthopaedic Hospital in Kassel, Germany; the president of that hospital, Professor Siebert, comes to the hospital regularly to provide clinical guidance, supporting the discipline's sustained development.

(2) Honglou Campus Spine Orthopaedics

The Honglou Campus spine orthopaedics subspecialty focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of all types of spinal diseases, covering spinal degeneration (such as cervical spondylosis, lumbar disc herniation and spinal stenosis), spinal deformity (scoliosis, kyphosis), spinal trauma, infection and tumours. High-difficulty grade III and IV operations account for 95% of the operations performed, reflecting its professional depth and technical strength in the field of spinal surgery.

In the field of minimally invasive treatment of lumbar degenerative diseases, the subspecialty has established expertise in a number of advanced techniques, including microscope-assisted discectomy, endoscopic transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion and percutaneous pedicle screw internal fixation. Compared with conventional open surgery, these minimally invasive techniques have marked advantages: less trauma, less bleeding, faster recovery and lower cost. Most patients can get out of bed for early functional exercise on the first postoperative day and are usually discharged after recovery 3–5 days after surgery, embodying the advanced concept of enhanced recovery after surgery.

In the field of spinal surgery, upper cervical spine surgery, because of the complexity of its anatomical structures and its proximity to important nerves and vessels, has always been regarded as a landmark technical high ground with extremely high technical difficulty and risk. The subspecialty has routinely performed a number of high-difficulty upper cervical operations, including reduction and fixation of irreducible atlantoaxial dislocation, posterior cervical endoscopic discectomy and posterior cervical laminoplasty. The successful performance of these complex operations centrally reflects the subspecialty's solid technical strength and diagnostic and therapeutic level in the spinal field.

The subspecialty has rich experience in the comprehensive diagnosis and treatment of complex spinal diseases. For severe spinal infectious diseases such as thoracolumbar spinal tuberculosis and mixed infections, it routinely performs high-difficulty techniques such as thoracoscopic anterior debridement and minimally invasive internal fixation combined with percutaneous drainage chemotherapy; at the same time, it skilfully performs minimally invasive vertebroplasty procedures such as PVP and PKP for elderly patients with osteoporotic thoracolumbar compression fractures, achieving the clinical results of minimal trauma, rapid recovery and definite efficacy.

3D printing-assisted correction of severe spinal deformity is another signature technique of the subspecialty at the top level of spinal care. These operations mainly address extremely complex cases such as adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, ankylosing spondylitis, or kyphotic deformity caused by severe osteoporosis. Because of the patients' complex conditions and poor bone quality, multilevel osteotomy, decompression and corrective internal fixation are often necessary; the surgical difficulty and risk are extremely high, and such surgery is regarded as a "forbidden zone" of spinal surgery.

To overcome this challenge, the subspecialty systematically applies 3D printing technology for precise preoperative modelling and surgical planning, and works with the operating room on individualised positioning design. During surgery, neurophysiological monitoring is used throughout to safeguard the spinal cord, and techniques such as bone-cement-augmented screws are used, effectively resolving the difficulty of internal fixation in patients with severe osteoporosis. This renders high-difficulty deformity correction surgery safer and more controllable, with more thorough and durable correction results, helping patients regain their quality of life.

(3) Honglou Campus Bone and Soft Tissue Oncology

The Honglou Campus bone and soft tissue oncology subspecialty is an important component department of the hospital's multidisciplinary tumour diagnosis and treatment system. It mainly admits patients with benign and malignant bone and soft tissue tumours, pelvic and limb trauma, osteoporotic spinal fractures in the elderly and other bone-related diseases, and has developed distinct specialty features.

The subspecialty has long received guidance from the team of Professor Yang Rongli of the Department of Bone and Soft Tissue Oncology of Peking University People's Hospital, including on-site surgical teaching and remote consultation support. At present, the subspecialty has appointed Professor Yang Rongli and the internationally renowned spinal tumour expert Professor Boriani of Italy as senior consultants, and maintains close academic exchange and cooperation with a number of authoritative bone tumour centres in China, continuously improving the specialty's level of diagnosis and treatment.

(4) Paediatric Orthopaedics and Trauma Orthopaedics

The ward has accumulated rich experience in paediatric orthopaedics and adult trauma orthopaedics and has established a good reputation. Its scope of diagnosis and treatment broadly covers conservative and minimally invasive treatment of paediatric fractures, developmental dislocation of the hip, congenital clubfoot, correction of complex limb deformities such as genu varum and genu valgum, and correction of congenital hand and foot deformities such as polydactyly and syndactyly; it also carries out diagnosis and treatment of conditions such as paediatric femoral head necrosis, congenital muscular torticollis and stenosing tenosynovitis. In trauma orthopaedics, it focuses on fractures of the limbs and pelvis, comprehensive treatment of multiple injuries, and the repair and reconstruction of delayed fracture healing, bone infection and large soft tissue defects.

The ward has formed a series of signature techniques in paediatric orthopaedics, including closed reduction and minimally invasive fixation with elastic intramedullary nails or Kirschner wires for paediatric limb fractures, triple pelvic osteotomy correction for developmental dislocation of the hip, the Ponseti sequential method for congenital clubfoot, and circular external fixator correction for complex limb deformities; at the same time, it skilfully performs closed reduction and intramedullary nail fixation of adult limb fractures, and routinely applies hip spica plaster casting and other fixation techniques combining traditional and modern approaches.

(5) Puji Campus Department of Orthopaedics

Since its establishment in 2004, the Puji Campus Department of Orthopaedics has, through years of development, successfully transformed from the comprehensive general orthopaedics model of its founding period to a refined subspecialty model. The department currently comprises two subspecialty directions, the joint surgery group and the spine surgery group. Upholding the "patient-centred" service philosophy, it brings more convenient, high-quality and high-level diagnostic and treatment services to the surrounding population.

As an important component of the orthopaedics service of Dongguan People's Hospital, the Puji Campus Department of Orthopaedics has introduced the mature orthopaedic technical system and service philosophy of the Honglou Campus, so that residents can obtain high-quality orthopaedic care close to home.

Of these, the joint surgery group focuses on two core directions: first, hip and knee arthroplasty and revision surgery, which, relying on the hospital's multidisciplinary collaboration platform, provides safe and reliable joint function reconstruction solutions for many elderly and complex cases; second, the skilled performance of minimally invasive treatments such as knee and shoulder arthroscopy, which have the advantages of less trauma, faster recovery and shorter hospital stay, and have become an important choice for patients with sports injuries and joint degeneration. The two groups of techniques support each other, jointly building a full-course diagnosis and treatment system for joint diseases running from conservative treatment through minimally invasive intervention to joint replacement.

The technical system of the spine surgery group covers two directions: first, minimally invasive treatment mainly for spinal fractures with spinal cord injury, cervical spondylosis and lumbar and leg pain; second, comprehensive diagnosis and treatment of complex diseases such as spinal tuberculosis, infection and tumours.

The department actively promotes the concept of minimally invasive surgery and is committed to helping patients achieve high-quality treatment and rehabilitation outcomes through precise and efficient intervention.

(6) Puji Campus Foot and Ankle Repair and Reconstruction Orthopaedics

Established in 2022, the Puji Campus Department of Foot and Ankle Repair and Reconstruction Orthopaedics is one of the few orthopaedic subspecialty departments in the province to take the lead in offering specialised diagnosis and treatment of foot and ankle diseases together with trauma repair, reconstruction and correction. Taking the restoration of foot and ankle structure, the reconstruction of function and the improvement of appearance as its clinical goals, the subspecialty focuses on the repair and reconstruction of infection, deformity and defects of the bones and joints of the lower limbs, and routinely performs repairs of vessels, nerves and tendons, Ilizarov external fixator bone transport, and transplantation of various free or pedicled skin flaps, bone flaps and musculocutaneous flaps.

The subspecialty's signature techniques include: 1. Minimally invasive arthroscopic diagnosis and treatment techniques of the foot and ankle; 2. Correction of hallux valgus deformity; 3. Correction of flexible flatfoot in adolescents with a subtalar joint brake; 4. Repair techniques for complex foot and ankle fractures; 5. Limb salvage techniques for severe limb trauma; 6. Repair and reconstruction techniques for tendon injuries; 7. Ankle arthroplasty.

II. Talent Development

With a sound talent echelon building the core engine of orthopaedic development, the department attaches great importance to talent development and has formed a professionally well-structured team with a complete echelon. The team includes 50 staff with senior professional titles and 66 with intermediate professional titles; there are 10 with doctoral degrees and 35 with master's degrees, and staff with doctoral or master's graduate training account for 57.3%; there is in addition 1 doctoral supervisor and 1 master's supervisor. With a high overall educational level and a complete teaching faculty, it provides solid talent support for the department's sustainable development.

The department brings together outstanding talents, including 1 expert receiving the Special Government Allowance of the State Council, 1 Guangdong Provincial Distinguished Young Medical Talent, 1 medical leading talent and 3 "Dongguan Famous Doctors". Among them, Li Songbo, Director of the orthopaedics discipline and concurrently Director of spine orthopaedics, is a professor at Southern Medical University, a master's supervisor and a postdoctoral joint-training supervisor; he serves as Director of the Dongguan Key Laboratory of Orthopaedics, Director of the Dongguan Orthopaedic Medical Quality Control Center and Director of the spinal endoscopy training centre, and is a member of the Guangdong Provincial Orthopaedic Medical Quality Control Center. He is a Dongguan Distinguished Talent and Dongguan Famous Doctor, a Guangdong Provincial Distinguished Young Medical Talent and a Dongguan Distinguished Young Medical Talent.

The department has a strong nursing team, with 9 nurses holding associate senior titles or above. To date it has trained 16 orthopaedic specialty nurses, 3 education specialty nurses and 1 rehabilitation specialty nurse, and has been approved as a Guangdong Provincial orthopaedic specialty nurse training base. In clinical work, the team systematically carries out perioperative enhanced recovery nursing and individualised rehabilitation training for orthopaedics, and actively introduces and disseminates new nursing techniques. Among them, "Application of the Otago Exercise Programme in patients undergoing knee arthroplasty", as an appropriate technology, has been rolled out in a number of primary hospitals across the province, effectively playing a role in technology dissemination and mentoring, with remarkable results.

III. Teaching and Research

With medicine and teaching working in synergy to drive innovation and inheritance in orthopaedics: in teaching, the department is a national-level standardised residency training base for orthopaedic surgery, receiving close to 100 residency trainees, advanced trainees and interns from across the country each year, and has become an important platform for the training and exchange of orthopaedic physicians in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area. The department is equipped with a clinical skills simulation training centre, with equipment such as arthroscopy, spinal endoscopy, microsurgical training systems and 3D-printed bone models, and conducts specialised skills training on a regular basis. The department implements a "one-to-one full-process mentorship system", with physicians holding associate senior titles or above serving as mentors, providing full-process guidance and individualised tutoring; its teaching results are remarkable, and in recent years the pass rate in the residency training graduation assessment has remained at 100%.

In recent years, the department's research work has achieved remarkable results. From 2022 to 2025 it obtained a number of research projects, including 4 Youth Projects of the National Natural Science Foundation, 1 Guangdong–Dongguan joint regional cultivation project, 1 postdoctoral special grant and 2 postdoctoral general projects, together with more than ten provincial and municipal projects. Over the same period it published 17 SCI papers and 7 core journal papers; obtained 4 national utility model patents; and received 1 municipal first prize for scientific and technological progress and 1 innovation scientific and technological progress award.

The department actively participates in international and national multicentre clinical studies, with 3 projects carried out in total. These include the "Multicentre randomised controlled study of simple laminectomy decompression versus MIS-TLIF for stable grade I lumbar spondylolisthesis" led by Sun Yat-sen University, and the "Multicentre randomised controlled study of rivaroxaban versus enoxaparin anticoagulation bridging in the perioperative period of spinal surgery" led by Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University; it also participates, as a collaborating unit, in the national "14th Five-Year Plan" key special project "Construction of a precise diagnosis and treatment system for spinal deformity and research on key technologies". In addition, the department has undertaken 4 phase III GCP clinical trials of drugs and devices.

In the future, the department will continue to uphold its motto of "sincerity, refined skill and wholehearted care", continuously advance technological innovation, service optimisation and regional collaboration, hold up a blue sky for walking for more patients, and contribute stronger orthopaedic strength to the building of a healthy Greater Bay Area!