South Campus — Critical Care Rehabilitation Department Ward 1（哈南分院）

Ward 1, Department of Critical Care Rehabilitation

2022.11

The First Department of Critical Care Rehabilitation follows the department’s development direction of “integrating Chinese and Western medicine to achieve complementary benefits,” and adheres to the founding philosophy of “mutual assistance, taking responsibility, diligent learning, and high efficiency.” Integrating clinical care, scientific research, and teaching, the department strives to develop and strengthen rehabilitation for acute and critical cardiac, cerebral, and spinal cord conditions. The department is affiliated with a key specialty in critical care medicine of traditional Chinese medicine under the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

There are currently 60 beds and 21 medical and nursing staff members, including 1 chief physician, 3 attending physicians, 2 resident physicians, 2 postdoctoral fellows, 1 doctoral degree holder, and 3 master’s degree holders. The department is equipped with 10 Mindray ventilators, 2 Hamilton ventilators, high-flow oxygen therapy devices, blood gas analyzers, multifunctional ECG monitors, defibrillators, event-related potential (ERP) systems, and other instruments and equipment. The department has developed a variety of technical procedures, including endotracheal intubation, central venous catheterization, lumbar puncture, thoracentesis, and abdominal paracentesis.

Diseases treated: Clinical work is conducted for neurological acute and critical conditions, including severe acute brain injury, cerebral hemorrhage, cerebral infarction, brainstem hemorrhage, brainstem infarction, spinal cord injury, myelitis, myasthenia gravis, motor neuron disease, and Guillain–Barré syndrome, as well as acute and critical heart failure, severe acute pneumonia, and other conditions. The department follows patients throughout the entire course of their illness, providing integrated one-stop treatment from the acute phase through the recovery phase and into the sequelae phase, safeguarding patients’ health.

Research focus: The department director, Cai Guofeng, is the inventor of Cross electro-nape-acupuncture (CENA). Cross electro-nape-acupuncture combines traditional acupuncture with modern medical technology, enabling the electric field to act on the reticular formation of the brainstem, the cough reflex center, the swallowing reflex center, and the respiratory center. Through complex neural reflex regulation, it promotes recovery of consciousness, remodeling of the cough reflex (tracheostomy tube capping), recovery of the swallowing reflex (removal of the gastric tube and oral feeding), and recovery from respiratory pump failure (weaning from mechanical ventilation). The department focuses closely on the four major effects of Cross electro-nape-acupuncture: arousal from coma; promotion of cough reflex remodeling; promotion of swallowing function recovery; and promotion of the initiation of spontaneous breathing. It conducts clinical and experimental research in critical care rehabilitation centered on Cross electro-nape-acupuncture as its core technology.

Courses taught: “Neurological Localization Diagnosis,” “Neurology,” and “Internal Medicine of Traditional Chinese Medicine.”

Medical specialties:

1. Rehabilitation beginning in the acute phase: During the acute phase of neurological emergencies, including acute severe brain injury, cerebral hemorrhage, cerebral infarction, brainstem hemorrhage, brainstem infarction, spinal cord injury, myelitis, myasthenia gravis, motor neuron disease, and Guillain–Barré syndrome, as well as acute heart failure and acute pneumonia, integrated Chinese and Western medical rehabilitation treatment focused on long-term prognosis is initiated while emergency treatment is provided during the acute phase.

2. Early intervention in critical care rehabilitation: While rescuing patients with critical neurological conditions, including severe brain injury, cerebral hemorrhage, cerebral infarction, brainstem hemorrhage, brainstem infarction, spinal cord injury, myelitis, myasthenia gravis, motor neuron disease, and Guillain–Barré syndrome, as well as severe heart failure and severe pneumonia, the distinctive feature of this department is that it begins integrated Chinese and Western medical rehabilitation treatment even when patients have impaired consciousness, are in the spinal shock phase with paralysis of all four limbs, have severe pulmonary infection and are receiving ventilator-assisted breathing in controlled ventilation mode, or have renal failure requiring dialysis. While ensuring basic survival needs, the department minimizes patients’ disability rates to the greatest extent possible, thereby improving their future quality of life and reducing the substantial future economic burden on individuals, families, and society.

3. Full-course treatment: Based on the characteristics of the department as an integrated Chinese and Western medicine critical care department, it not only covers critically ill patients with cardiac, cerebral, and spinal cord conditions who cannot be admitted to conventional departments during the acute and critical stages, but also includes patients with severe cardiac, cerebral, and spinal cord conditions who cannot be followed and treated by general critical care departments during the transition from the critical stage to the recovery phase and through the sequelae phase. The department provides integrated one-stop treatment throughout the entire course, from the acute phase through the recovery phase and into the sequelae phase, safeguarding patients’ health.

4. Integrated Chinese and Western medical treatment: The department has achieved the integration of traditional Chinese and Western medicine, the integration of traditional and modern approaches, and the integration of acupuncture and rehabilitation. Taking severe pulmonary infection as an example, in treating patients with severe pulmonary infection who have undergone tracheostomy and require ventilator-assisted breathing, the department uses syndrome-based treatment to administer traditional Chinese herbal decoctions, provides acupuncture and rehabilitation treatment based on syndrome differentiation targeting the pathogenesis, administers anti-inflammatory treatment using laboratory methods combining sputum bacterial culture and genetic testing, and follows a comprehensive airway care protocol. This achieves precise and comprehensive treatment, rapidly promotes recovery from infection, and facilitates weaning from mechanical ventilation.

5. Arousal from coma in severe encephalopathy: When patients with severe encephalopathy have impaired consciousness, integrated Chinese and Western medical rehabilitation treatment is provided. On the basis of conventional treatment, Cross electro-nape-acupuncture is administered to act on the reticular formation of the brainstem and promote recovery of consciousness through complex neural networks. Patients with disorders of consciousness are also scientifically evaluated, and their consciousness is monitored using an advanced, internationally recognized event-related potential (ERP) system to adjust the treatment plan.

6. Emphasis on disease prevention: Following the principle of “treating disease before it develops,” and based on years of experience in providing continuous, full-course treatment for severe cardiac, cerebral, and spinal cord conditions, the department conducts primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases to reduce the likelihood of their initial occurrence and recurrence.