Vascular Surgery

The Department of Vascular and Abdominal Wall Hernia Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University was founded in 1972, making it the earliest independently established vascular surgery department in western China; thereafter, in 1998, with the approval of the Chongqing Municipal Health Bureau and the Municipal Commission Office for Public Sector Reform, the Chongqing Vascular Surgery Center was established; in 2002, it was approved as a Training Center for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Hernia and Abdominal Wall Surgical Diseases; and in 2013, it became one of the first nationally recognized bases by the National Health Commission and the only peripheral vascular intervention training base in Chongqing. At present, the Center is a deputy-chair institution of the Endovascular Medicine Specialty Committee of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, a standing-committee-member institution of the Vascular Surgery Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, the lead institution of the Vascular Access Group of the Vascular Surgery Physicians Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, the lead institution of the Venous Reflux Diseases Group of the Endovascular Medicine Specialty Committee of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, a committee-member institution of the Hernia and Abdominal Wall Surgery Group of the Surgery Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, the deputy-lead institution of the Hernia and Abdominal Wall Surgery Expert Working Group of the Surgeons Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, a vice-chair institution of the Peripheral Vascular Disease Management Branch of the Chinese Society of Geriatrics, and the chair institution of the Vascular Surgery Branch of the Chongqing Medical Doctor Association, among others. After more than 50 years of clinical practice and accumulation, the department has established three major inpatient wards at the Yuanjiagang, Jinshan, and Jingwei campuses, with more than 120 open beds in total; it is currently a sizable vascular surgery center and hernia center in western China, with comprehensive technical capabilities and diagnostic and treatment standards among the leading levels in China, completing nearly more than 5,000 peripheral vascular and abdominal wall hernia operations annually, ranking first in the Chongqing region. The Center’s scope of diagnosis and treatment is extensive, covering aortic critical and life-threatening conditions including thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms and aortic dissection; acute and chronic, hemorrhagic, and ischemic peripheral arterial diseases including embolism of the limb and visceral arteries, ruptured aneurysm hemorrhage, vascular injury, and atherosclerotic occlusion; peripheral venous diseases including acute and chronic deep vein thrombosis and varicose veins; all types of peripheral vascular diseases including hemodialysis access creation and maintenance, arteriovenous fistulas, and vascular malformations; and all types of abdominal wall hernia diseases including inguinal, umbilical, and incisional hernias. Among these, the main hospital campus has a comprehensive ward focusing on vascular diseases and hernia and abdominal wall diseases, routinely carrying out minimally invasive and open treatment for various vascular and abdominal wall hernia diseases; the Jinshan campus is a subspecialty ward that was the first in western China to focus on hemodialysis access creation and maintenance—the distinctive “Jinshan Model” has become an industry benchmark for hemodialysis access; and the Jingwei campus is a day-surgery diagnosis and treatment center focusing on day surgeries related to vascular diseases, especially venous diseases, and hernia diseases. The department has a well-structured talent echelon and currently has 7 chief physicians, 4 deputy chief physicians, 4 attending physicians, and 10 resident physicians; among them are 1 doctoral supervisor and 7 master’s supervisors. They each specialize in and have achieved considerable accomplishments in clinical medical professional technology, medical education, and scientific research and scholarship. In clinical medical professional technology, the department has established subspecialty groups based on the diagnosis and treatment of four major disease categories: (major) arterial diseases, venous diseases, abdominal wall (hernia) diseases, and hemodialysis access. Its outpatient, inpatient, and surgical volumes have ranked among the leading levels in Southwest China and the top levels nationwide for many years. It was the first in China to develop the minimally invasive technique of using regionally customized fenestrated stents to treat thoracoabdominal aortic diseases, proposed and implemented a rapid-recovery system for lower-extremity deep vein thrombosis, and its “Jinshan Model” for hemodialysis access has become a leading example in China’s vascular surgery field. Among the department’s personnel, 3 serve as standing committee members, deputy chairs, or above of professional committees of national-level academic societies, and 2 serve as chairs of provincial-level academic societies or subcommittees. The department also took the lead in establishing the Vascular Surgery Physicians Branch of the Chongqing Medical Doctor Association and serves as its chair institution. In medical education, the department was approved as a master’s degree-granting site in 1981 and as a doctoral degree-granting site in 1993. It currently has 4 professors, 5 associate professors, and 10 lecturers; among them are 1 doctoral supervisor and 7 master’s supervisors. It has participated in compiling or served as chief translator of multiple bilingual textbooks, medical monographs, and other works, and emphasizes theoretical and practical education in clinical medicine for undergraduates and graduate students; since 2018, more than 10 doctoral students and more than 60 master’s students have graduated. Department personnel have repeatedly served as undergraduate development mentors and part-time class advisers. The team’s project “Exploration and Practice of Medical Students’ Surgical Practical Ability and Physician Professionalism under the ‘5+3’ Background” won the first prize for university-level achievements at Chongqing Medical University. In medical innovation and entrepreneurship education, Vascular Surgery led student teams to win gold awards in both the Chongqing Division of the 8th and 9th China International “Internet+” College Students Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. Multiple projects were approved under the 2022 Future Medicine Young Innovation Group Development Program of Chongqing Medical University. In continuing medical education, as a National Peripheral Vascular Intervention Training Base, the Chongqing Hernia and Abdominal Wall Surgery Disease Diagnosis and Treatment Quality Control Center, and the permanent host institution of the Cross-Strait Hemodialysis Vascular Access Conference, the department has long accepted visiting physicians from all over the country; its regularly held academic seminars and training courses on peripheral vascular interventional diagnosis and treatment, vascular access creation, and other topics have trained a large number of reserve vascular surgery professionals for various provinces and cities. Since 2018, it has hosted more than 10 national continuing education programs and nearly 20 sessions of continuing education training courses on peripheral intervention; it has accepted nearly 200 visiting physicians from Guangxi, Xinjiang, Tibet, Fujian, Hainan, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, and more than 10 provinces and cities including Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, and Chongqing, and has also accepted 1 foreign physician from Queen Elizabeth Hospital of Barbados for advanced study in peripheral vascular interventional surgery. It has made a tremendous contribution to improving the level of primary healthcare and popularizing and promoting specialized technologies. In scientific research and scholarship, since 2018 the department has received approval for 2 National Natural Science Foundation of China projects and 6 provincial- or ministerial-level projects, in addition to nearly 10 bureau-level and university-level projects; it has published more than 20 SCI papers, including in classic international vascular surgery journals such as Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, and Journal of Vascular Surgery. Over the years, the Center has participated in more than 20 national multicenter clinical trial studies of vascular interventional devices and 3 drugs, serving as the lead institution for clinical research on 3 vascular interventional devices. Five national invention patents have been approved and translated into applications. Department personnel have repeatedly traveled to the United Kingdom (International Symposium Charing Cross), the United States (VEITH, 20th Annual New Cardiovascular Horizons Conference, Complex Cardiovascular Catheter Therapeutics), Australia (VERVE Symposium), Italy (15th edition of Sclerotherapy International Congress), Singapore (Dialysis Access Synergy), Russia, Japan, Taiwan, China (2nd Asia Pacific Vein Summit/ Asia Pacific Aortic Summit), Hong Kong, China (LINC Asian, ), and Macao, China (APA) to participate in various internationally renowned academic conferences, where they have delivered speeches, demonstrated procedures, or served as moderators/discussants, speaking out and offering advice to expand the international influence of vascular surgery in China. In addition, the department has actively contributed to social medical assistance, foreign-related work, and improvement of primary healthcare standards; its members participated in the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake rescue and the 2013 Ya’an Lushan earthquake rescue. Since 2017, 4 doctors have successively participated in foreign-aid work for 1 year each, providing professional guidance and assistance in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of peripheral vascular diseases and interventional surgery at Queen Elizabeth Hospital of Barbados, the recipient institution, and providing healthcare services for employees of Chinese companies working in Barbados. In 2017, the department’s head nurse participated in aid-to-Tibet work for 1.5 years, serving as director of the Nursing Department of the People’s Hospital of Qamdo, Tibet, helping the hospital successfully complete the establishment of a “tertiary grade-A” hospital, and actively carrying out nursing personnel training, primary-level assistance, and other work. During the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020-2022, 6 nursing personnel from the department separately and repeatedly participated in front-line nursing work in Wuhan’s COVID-19 fight, the COVID-19 response mission in Shanghai, and the COVID-19 response mission at Chongqing’s makeshift hospitals, contributing the department’s strength to social medical treatment and support. In addition to the medical team, the department’s nursing team keeps pace with medical development and nursing frontiers in China and abroad, continuously improves nurses’ professional qualities, practices “Five-Heart” high-quality nursing services, and improves patients’ healthcare experience; satisfaction among discharged patients exceeds 95%, with zero complaints and zero disputes. Through grassroots assistance under the approach of “going out and bringing in,” it has conducted more than 20 rounds of lectures and remote training inside and outside the municipality since 2018, and accepted nearly 50 visiting nurses from Hubei, Guangdong, Guangxi, Xinjiang, and provinces and cities including Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, and Chongqing. It continuously strengthens on-campus teaching and the training of clinical teaching staff, undertaking teaching tasks for undergraduate and graduate nursing courses including Surgical Nursing, Introduction to Nursing, and Nursing Management; it has undertaken teaching tasks for 7 specialist nurse training bases in Chongqing; and since 2018 it has hosted 4 national- and municipal-level continuing education programs. It has received approval for 2 provincial- or ministerial-level projects and 5 hospital-level projects, published nearly 20 papers, including 1 SCI paper, and participated in compiling 4 textbooks and monographs. Many members of the team serve as committee members of national nursing specialty committees. They contribute a unique strength to the joint improvement and mutual reinforcement of the department’s medical and nursing services.