Neurosurgery

I. A Leader in the Race of a Hundred Sails

Creation and Development

In 1984, under the academic guidance and careful planning of Professor Xue Qingcheng, pioneers of the field including Wang Xiangchang, Luan Wenzhong, and Li Zhendong jointly founded the Department of Neurosurgery at Peking University People's Hospital, with Professor Luan Wenzhong serving as its first director. After more than 40 years of passing on its legacy and striving for excellence, the department has undergone leapfrog development and historic transformation. It has now joined the ranks of national key disciplines, fully undertaken Peking University Health Science Center's mission of integrating medical education, research, and clinical practice, as well as its commitment to high-quality nursing, and led and coordinated national key projects and regional collaborative innovation programs. It has established a professional model in neurosurgery combining academic stature with clinical depth.

Faculty and Staff

The department has developed a highly skilled medical and nursing team with a complete structure and outstanding academic expertise. It currently has 45 medical and nursing staff, including 22 physicians (4 chief physicians, 7 associate chief physicians, 9 attending physicians, and 2 resident physicians) and 23 nurses. The talent pipeline is scientifically configured in a pyramid structure: 17 staff members hold doctoral degrees and 5 hold master's degrees, supported by postgraduate supervisors with profound academic achievements. The team combines cutting-edge innovative vitality with deep clinical experience, providing robust talent support for the discipline's continued leadership.

II. Comprehensive Planning and Substantive Leaps—Coordinated Development of the “Four Major Specialties”

Neuro-oncology

The department has achieved the precise integrated application of advanced equipment, including microscopes, neuroendoscopes, surgical robots, and intraoperative navigation, and performs individualized minimally invasive surgery for intracranial tumors. Relying on molecular pathology, it has established a standardized comprehensive diagnosis and treatment system for gliomas, precisely matching each tumor patient with an advanced multimodal treatment plan to maximize therapeutic outcomes. In addition to routine diagnosis and treatment of cranial tumors, it has developed systematic advanced diagnostic and treatment strategies for challenging lesions such as deep cerebral gliomas, complex skull-base tumors, giant pituitary tumors, and craniopharyngiomas, accumulating extensive hands-on clinical experience and maintaining its treatment technology among the country's advanced tier.

Cerebrovascular Disease

Using internationally authoritative guidelines as the benchmark for precise diagnosis and treatment, the department applies techniques such as minimally invasive craniotomy and endovascular surgery in a highly standardized manner, continuously maintaining industry-leading standards of surgical safety and long-term efficacy. In the surgical and endovascular treatment of complex cerebrovascular diseases, including high-risk carotid body tumors, multiple and giant intracranial aneurysms, cerebral and spinal vascular malformations, Moyamoya disease, and various ischemic cerebrovascular diseases, the team has established mature, systematic diagnostic and treatment protocols and accumulated extensive hands-on clinical experience.

Functional Neurosurgery

On the basis of microvascular decompression for traditionally advantageous conditions such as trigeminal neuralgia, hemifacial spasm, and glossopharyngeal neuralgia, the department has established a diversified precision diagnosis and treatment system for drug-resistant epilepsy, encompassing long-term video EEG monitoring, deep brain electrode implantation, epileptogenic focus resection, and vagus nerve stimulation. For movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease, it has established a mature treatment system for deep brain electrode implantation (DBS), providing patients with functional neurological disorders with full-cycle, high-precision diagnostic and treatment plans.

Spine, Spinal Cord and Peripheral Nerves, and Neurotrauma

Focusing on the diagnosis and treatment of challenging spinal and spinal cord lesions, the department performs more than 100 operations annually for complex cases including intraspinal tumors (schwannomas, meningiomas, ependymomas, gliomas, and others), sacral canal cysts, Chiari malformation, and syringomyelia, with profound technical expertise. In the field of peripheral nerve diseases, it has established a standardized, full-chain intervention system of “precision diagnosis and treatment—functional reconstruction—rehabilitation guidance,” developing systematic solutions for diabetic peripheral neuropathy, peripheral nerve schwannomas, facial paralysis, and other conditions, thereby achieving seamless integration of diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation.

III. National-Level Research and Interdisciplinary Innovation

The department's research and innovation strength remains in the country's first tier. It has led and undertaken more than 40 major national research projects, including supporting subprojects of the “National Brain Initiative” in northern China, key research and development programs of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and National Natural Science Foundation of China projects. It has cumulatively published more than 150 SCI papers and served as chief editor or contributing editor of more than 20 professional books. It has achieved a series of groundbreaking results in cutting-edge fields including precision targeted therapy for gliomas, stem cell transplantation, and neuromodulation therapy. These research achievements have been clinically translated and promoted on a large scale in provincial, municipal, and primary hospitals, establishing an efficient innovation chain of “basic research—clinical translation—technology dissemination.”

IV. Serving Primary-Level Healthcare—Joint Development and Shared Benefits

The department deeply implements the development strategy of “strengthening primary-level healthcare, promoting balance, and revitalizing regions.” It has established a telemedicine collaboration network covering provincial, municipal, and county-level hospitals. Through targeted assistance models such as remote consultations and real-time surgical demonstrations, it accelerates the improvement of diagnostic and treatment capabilities in primary healthcare institutions. Expert teams regularly work on the front line, using multiple measures including academic lectures, expert outpatient clinics, joint ward rounds, co-construction of laboratories, and collaborative research to establish a dual-engine system combining technical “transfusion” with research “empowerment,” comprehensively driving leapfrog improvement in regional neurosurgical diagnosis and treatment.

V. Service Philosophy and Future Vision

The Department of Neurosurgery at Peking University People's Hospital has always taken “patient-centered care, technology-led development, and collaborative growth” as its core development philosophy. It continues to optimize the allocation of top-tier discipline resources, reinforce the defensive line for medical quality and safety, and deepen the standardization and precision of diagnosis and treatment. In the future, the department will work to build a first-class, multidimensional collaborative ecosystem for neurosurgery with national benchmark significance, joining hands with medical institutions at all levels across China to pursue shared dreams and progress. It will comprehensively promote regional neurosurgical capabilities to new heights, enabling more primary-level patients to enjoy high-quality national-level medical services close to home.