General Surgery Ward VIII

The Department of Breast Surgery of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University is a specialized department integrating medical care, scientific research, and teaching, dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of breast diseases. The department was established in 2002, when Professor Zhang Jianguo was appointed director of the ward. In October of the same year, a team was sent by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs to study at the Breast Center of Magee Women’s Hospital, University of Pittsburgh, in the United States, focusing on comprehensive and multidisciplinary treatment of breast cancer. In 2008, the Breast Surgery Ward was formally established. The department currently has 12 medical and technical staff members, including 6 professors, 1 associate professor, and 6 supervisors of master’s students. Among the medical team, 100% hold doctoral degrees. There are also 2 ultrasound technicians and 2 mammography technicians. Two physicians successively pursued further training in North America, Europe, and Japan for more than one year. The department currently has 60 beds. It is equipped with 1 digital mammography unit for breast screening and the diagnosis of early breast cancer, 2 breast-specialty color Doppler ultrasound machines, 1 Mammotome biopsy system, 1 Elite biopsy system, 1 sentinel lymph node gamma-ray scanner, and other equipment for the diagnosis and treatment of breast diseases. Taking advantage of minimally invasive surgery, the department performs Mammotome minimally invasive surgery for benign tumors, endoscopic breast-conserving surgery for breast cancer, endoscopic stage I radical surgery for breast cancer and breast reconstruction, and was the first in the province to perform sentinel lymph node biopsy, neoadjuvant chemotherapy, primary breast prosthesis implantation with preservation of the nipple–areola complex, primary breast reconstruction using a rectus abdominis myocutaneous flap after modified radical mastectomy, and salvage treatment for advanced breast cancer. The Department of Breast Surgery of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University is one of the earliest breast surgery departments established in our province, a model for the comprehensive treatment of breast diseases, and a nationally renowned department. It has been rated as a first-class specialty of our hospital. At present, the department receives more than 25,000 outpatient visits annually and performs more than 3,000 outpatient and inpatient operations each year, including nearly 1,000 for malignant breast tumors and more than 300 endoscopic breast operations. The department has introduced 16 new medical technologies and has led and undertaken 5 research projects, including projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, scientific research projects of the Ministry of Health, and the special fund for major projects of the National Health and Family Planning Commission. It has published more than 30 SCI-indexed papers and over 100 papers in domestic core journals.