Songbei – Urological Surgery Department

The Urology Department of the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University combines clinical care, research and teaching. The hospital describes its treatment of urinary tumors, urinary stones and prostate diseases as among the leading services in China. It is authorized for postdoctoral, doctoral and master's training, a specialist training base recognized by the former Ministry of Health, a China–Russia urological holmium laser training base, a Heilongjiang minimally invasive urology treatment center and a founding institution of the provincial urology alliance. It has been designated the China–Russia Urology Institute, repeatedly named an advanced medical department by the hospital and recognized as a key department. The hospital reports broad development of minimally invasive endourological treatments in recent years and early introduction in the province of a fourth-generation da Vinci robot. It states that it now performs minimally invasive surgery for almost all urinary system diseases. Reported provincial firsts include robot-assisted laparoscopic radical cystectomy, anatomical radical prostatectomy, partial nephrectomy, pyeloplasty, and radical surgery for renal pelvic and ureteral cancer. The hospital reports favorable urinary continence and sexual-function preservation after prostate cancer surgery. It states that its case volume for flexible ureteroscopic holmium laser treatment of kidney and ureteral stones leads the province and that it introduced transurethral holmium laser enucleation of the prostate early in the province. It also performs percutaneous nephrolithoscopy for complex and staghorn kidney stones. Regular training includes prostate biopsy, minimally invasive urinary stone treatment and hands-on laparoscopic animal experiments.