General Surgery Obesity and Hernia Surgery Center

| Department Overview/History |--------------

On July 4, 1991, Professor Ni Quanxing completed Huashan Hospital’s first laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Subsequently, Professor Yao Qiyuan performed laparoscopic surgery for other general-surgery diseases. In 1998, the “Minimally Invasive Surgery Specialty Group” was established, with Professor Yao Qiyuan as its leader. With the gradual maturation and widespread application of minimally invasive techniques, the team established hernia and abdominal wall surgery, and bariatric and metabolic surgery, as its primary development directions, and established the “General Surgery Obesity and Hernia Surgery Center” on July 4, 2023.

Team members: The center currently has 1 academic leader, 2 deputy department directors, 2 chief physicians, 3 associate chief physicians, and 3 attending physicians; 3 jointly appointed professors, 3 doctoral supervisors, and 9 doctoral and master’s students currently enrolled.

In 2000, Professor Yao Qiyuan went to Germany to study laparoscopic hernia repair techniques. After returning to China, he gradually introduced laparoscopic totally extraperitoneal inguinal hernia repair and hiatal hernia repair. The team focused its specialty on “hernia and abdominal wall surgery” and further developed laparoscopic repair of incisional hernias, parastomal hernias, and pelvic floor hernias, as well as minimally invasive treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease, postpartum rectus diastasis, abdominal wall tumors, and retroperitoneal tumors. In 2010, it initiated the “day surgery” treatment model for various types of hernia.

In 2010, in response to the increasing prevalence of obesity and metabolic diseases in China and the maturation of minimally invasive techniques for bariatric surgery, the Huashan minimally invasive surgery team began focusing on this emerging field of surgery. After studying minimally invasive and bariatric surgical techniques and perioperative management at Massachusetts General Hospital in the United States, Professor Yao Qiyuan led the team to use “the pathogenesis of obesity and metabolic diseases and the mechanisms by which bariatric surgery alleviates metabolic diseases” as a research breakthrough, and “multidisciplinary collaboration in the minimally invasive surgical treatment of obesity and metabolic diseases” as its diagnostic and treatment model. The team established a multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment platform jointly created by experts from minimally invasive surgery, endocrinology, anesthesiology, clinical nutrition, Fudan University Sleep Disorders Diagnosis and Treatment Center, neurology, psychology, exercise rehabilitation, gastroenterology, cardiovascular medicine, respiratory medicine, urology, plastic surgery, radiological imaging, ultrasonography, nursing, and other disciplines.

| Distinctive Features of the Specialty |--------------

The team possesses an original technique for resolving difficult hernia conditions—the Lap-re-Do parastomal hernia repair technique—which has been included in international professional books. It has participated in the formulation of the “International Guidelines for the Treatment of Abdominal Wall Hernias” and several “Domestic Guidelines for the Treatment of Abdominal Wall Hernias.”

Rooted in minimally invasive surgery, the team continuously strives for excellence, with less trauma and faster recovery. Building on open inguinal hernia repair, it has improved the procedure to develop the distinctive “LAMP” technique.

Based on its major contributions to hernia treatment, the country’s first university-affiliated “Fudan University Hernia Center” was established, and the “Huashan Hernia” brand has gained recognition among professionals and the public.

Treatment of obesity requires multidisciplinary participation. The center has established a multidisciplinary platform integrating clinical care, research, teaching, and public education, fully leveraging the strengths of each discipline. Drawing on advanced international treatment concepts and incorporating the characteristics of Asian populations, the center has developed an integrated treatment plan for obesity and metabolic diseases suitable for the Chinese population. It adopts measures including behavioral guidance, dietary intervention, drug treatment, traditional Chinese medicine intervention, and exercise rehabilitation support; conducts strict screening; advocates sleeve gastrectomy as the first-choice/planned surgery; and then, based on whether reflux is present, manages weight regain, inadequate weight loss, and/or inadequate remission of metabolic diseases separately, selecting treatment measures such as fundoplication plus greater-curvature plication, fundoplication plus sleeve gastrectomy, and sleeve gastrectomy + single-anastomosis duodeno-ileal bypass (SADI-S).

| Teaching |--------------

Respecting teachers and valuing tradition, with knowledge passed down from generation to generation, the department places great importance on teaching. For many years, it has participated in teaching international students, graduate students, and undergraduate students at Shanghai Medical College, and has participated in teaching and bedside instruction for “New Advances in Minimally Invasive Surgery,” “External Abdominal Hernias,” “New Advances in Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery,” “Laparoscopic Hernia Repair,” “Obesity and Reflux,” and other courses. For medical students who have not yet entered clinical practice, it offers the clinical experience activity “Cultivating Future Bariatric Masters.” Since 2005, it has offered national continuing-education programs on minimally invasive treatment of various hernias, obesity, and other conditions for visiting physicians and domestic peers, including “When Obesity Meets Reflux,” the “Yangtze River Day Surgery Hernia Forum,” and the “Yangtze River Delta Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery Forum,” receiving unanimous praise.

| Research |--------------

Through continuous exploration and research, the center has achieved excellent results. It has currently received 1 National Natural Science Foundation of China Overseas Excellent Young Scientists Fund project, 3 General Program projects, 2 Young Scientists Fund projects, 1 subproject of a major project under the Ministry of Science and Technology’s 14th Five-Year Plan, 1 Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission funding project, and 1 Shanghai Municipal Health Bureau project. It has published more than 40 SCI papers (the highest impact factor for a single paper is 30 points) and nearly 100 papers in authoritative journals, holds 12 invention and utility-model patents, and has successfully commercialized 1 patent.

| Department Honors |--------------

Striving for excellence and advancing together, the team enjoys a high reputation and academic standing in the field. It is currently a member institution of the Laparoscopic and Endoscopic Surgery Group of the Surgical Branch of the Chinese Medical Association; a member institution of the Expert Working Group on Obesity and Metabolic Surgery and the Expert Working Group on Surgical Diagnosis and Treatment of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease of the Surgical Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association; a deputy-chair institution of the Professional Committee of Ostomy Surgery; a deputy-chair institution of the China Minimally Invasive Alliance for Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease; an executive committee member institution of the Asia Pacific Hernia Society; and the chair institution of the International Alliance of Abdominal Wall and Ostomy Surgery. It is the lead institution of the Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery Group and the deputy-lead institution of the Hernia and Abdominal Wall Surgery Group of the General Surgery Branch of the Shanghai Medical Association. It is also the China Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease Surgical Training Center, China Clinical Medical Research Center for Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery, China Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Training Center, and Asia-Pacific Center of Excellence for Hernia Surgery.