Thoracic Surgery

The Department of Thoracic Surgery of the Tenth Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University (Dongguan People's Hospital) became an independent department in July 2023. Its predecessor, the cardiothoracic surgery department, was established in 1995 and was among the earlier cardiothoracic surgery specialties established in the province. After 30 years of development and accumulation, it has become a strong specialty with comprehensive development in thoracic surgery and cardiac and great-vessel surgery. It is a Guangdong key clinical specialty, a Guangdong training base for "endoscopic diagnostic and therapeutic techniques in thoracic surgery", the Dongguan-area pulmonary nodule diagnosis and consultation centre of the China Thoracic Surgery Lung Cancer Alliance, an enhanced recovery after surgery demonstration centre of the China Thoracic Surgery ERAS demonstration project, and the unit holding the chair of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Branch of the Dongguan Medical Association.

The department has a strong team, currently with 14 doctors and 1 full-time researcher. Among them are 2 Chief Physicians, 6 Associate Chief Physicians, 5 with doctoral-level graduate education (including 1 with postdoctoral experience), 4 with master's-level graduate education, 2 master's supervisors, 2 adjunct professors and 3 associate professors.

The department currently has 46 beds in operation and is equipped with a variety of advanced medical devices, including 1 3D high-definition thoracoscope, 1 fluorescence thoracoscope, 2 ventilators, several central ECG monitors, volumetric infusion pumps and syringe pumps, ensuring that the department can provide better and safer diagnostic and treatment services for patients.

In recent years the thoracic surgery specialty has entered a stage of rapid development, with its clinical activity growing rapidly at close to 20% per year. Annual outpatient visits exceed 20,000; annual inpatients exceed 1,800; and the annual volume of operations exceeds 1,300. Grade IV procedures (under the Chinese four-level classification of surgery) account for 90%, and the rate of minimally invasive thoracoscopic surgery reaches 95% or more. Over the past 5 years, the department has undertaken 14 provincial and municipal research projects and published 3 SCI papers and more than 20 papers in core journals.

The department has extensive clinical experience in the diagnosis and treatment of thoracic diseases. Conditions treated include pulmonary nodules, lung cancer, pneumothorax, pulmonary bullae and bullous emphysema, pleural effusion and chronic empyema, bronchiectasis, oesophageal tumours (such as oesophageal cancer and oesophageal leiomyoma), oesophageal perforation and stenosis, palmar hyperhidrosis, mediastinal tumours (such as thymoma, schwannoma, teratoma and cysts), chest wall deformities (such as pectus excavatum and pectus carinatum) and thoracic trauma (such as rib and sternal fractures, haemothorax and pulmonary laceration).

The department was the earliest in Dongguan to perform minimally invasive thoracoscopic surgery, and now routinely performs complete thoracoscopic lobectomy, radical resection of lung cancer, precise segmentectomy (with combined subsegmentectomy), anatomic partial lobectomy, combined thoraco-laparoscopic minimally invasive radical resection of oesophageal cancer, thoracoscopic resection of mediastinal tumours, lung volume reduction surgery and the Nuss procedure for pectus excavatum, among other minimally invasive operations. Among these, precise localisation of small pulmonary nodules by 3D reconstruction and segmentectomy are the department's featured technical programmes. It has taken the lead in conducting new techniques such as uniportal thoracoscopic surgery, subxiphoid thoracoscopic extended thymectomy for myasthenia gravis, and thoracoscopic surgery under general anaesthesia without tracheal intubation with spontaneous breathing preserved. It was the first in the Dongguan area to provide artificial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for patients in critical condition, and it undertakes emergency care for severe thoracic trauma in the Dongguan area and guides township and subdistrict hospitals in the emergency and rescue treatment of thoracic trauma. At the same time, the department performs highly difficult operations including thoracoscopic bronchial sleeve lobectomy and pulmonary artery angioplasty, pneumonectomy, resection of large-airway tumours, emergency thoracotomy assisted by ECMO in critically ill patients, resection of giant thoracic tumours, and resection of giant mediastinal tumours combined with reconstruction of the superior vena cava and the azygos vein.

In teaching, the department undertakes the clinical teaching tasks of the hospital's surgery teaching and research section, and each year completes the clinical internship teaching plans of Sun Yat-sen University, Southern Medical University, Guangdong Medical University, Guangzhou Medical University and Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine. It also undertakes the standardised residency training of medical institutions across Dongguan and the clinical supervision of clinical specialty interns from medical colleges, cultivating and supplying excellent clinical professionals to the medical field.