Spinal Surgery

Peking University People’s Hospital began its spine work in 1944. At that time, everything was awaiting reconstruction; alongside the growth of the Republic, the work gradually took shape through exploration and hardship. Through the diligent efforts of predecessors including Meng Jimou, Feng Chuanhan, Jiang Hualong and Lü Houshan, and the dedication of countless others, the basic theoretical framework and professional structure of spinal care gradually emerged, laying the foundation for the development of our hospital’s spinal surgery and for China’s spinal surgery field.

With the momentum of reform and opening-up and the rapid development of China’s healthcare system, our spinal specialty made a milestone advance in 2001, formally separating from orthopedics to establish the Department of Spinal Surgery. It was one of the earliest professional departments in China dedicated to treating spinal disorders. Since its establishment, the department has developed rapidly and healthily and has now grown into a specialty encompassing comprehensive diagnosis, treatment and research of all types of spinal disease. It is a doctoral discipline of Peking University, a key discipline of the Ministry of Education, and a national key specialty (orthopedics) of the Ministry of Health. Upholding rigor, dedication and tireless endeavor, the department was among the first in China to perform various spinal procedures, including anterior and posterior cervical decompression, anterior and posterior lumbar surgery, atlantoaxial surgery, thoracic decompression, spinal deformity correction and minimally invasive spinal decompression, with outcomes highly praised by patients. The department currently has 42 beds, 18 doctors and 18 nurses, including 3 chief physicians, 6 associate chief physicians, 8 attending physicians and 2 postdoctoral fellows. There are 10 graduate students in training, including 5 doctoral and 5 master’s students, and nearly 2000 spinal operations are performed annually. Conditions treated include degenerative diseases, congenital diseases, deformities and trauma of the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine.

Professor Liu Haiying, former director, is leader of the National Working Group for Prevention and Control of Scoliosis in Children and Adolescents, executive council member of the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association, chair of its Professional Committee for Prevention and Control of Spinal Diseases, and chair of the Beijing Haiying Spine Health Public Welfare Foundation. With more than 30 years of orthopedic clinical experience, he has accumulated extensive expertise in treating spinal diseases and has completed more than 10,000 spinal operations, with excellent outcomes. Through years of clinical practice and experience, he completed China’s first Standards for Surgical Treatment of Lumbar Spinal Canal Stenosis, which was published in the Chinese Medical Journal. Over the past 10+ years, Professor Liu has devoted himself to the clinical diagnosis and treatment of spinal deformities and led nationwide prevention and control of scoliosis in children and adolescents, particularly diagnosis, treatment and assistance for severe and extremely severe kyphoscoliosis in Tibetan areas. He has completed a large number of highly difficult spinal deformity correction procedures, with outcomes highly praised by patients and peers.

Professor Zeng Yan, current director, has engaged in clinical and research work in spinal surgery for nearly 30 years. He specializes in diagnosing and treating complex spinal diseases and revision surgery after all types of thoracolumbar procedures. In addition to conventional techniques, he is proficient in advanced spinal procedures, including minimally invasive lumbar decompression and fusion Mis-TLIF, single-channel (transforaminal and interlaminar) endoscopic surgery, biportal (UBE) spinal endoscopic decompression and fusion, and oblique lateral interbody fusion (OLIF). His research on spinal deformity and thoracic spinal stenosis has received Beijing Science and Technology Achievement Awards and multiple granted patents. For nearly 20 years he has devoted himself to the clinical treatment and research of spinal deformity, performing more than 100 spinal deformity operations annually with excellent results, and has published extensively in SCI and Chinese core journals. He has particular expertise and influence in treating severe rigid angular kyphosis caused by spinal tuberculosis and innovatively proposed the circumferential decompression–limited correction theory for angular kyphosis of the upper and middle thoracic spine, which is at an internationally advanced level.

Over the past 15 years, the department has actively pursued progress and innovation, making continuous advances in osteotomy and correction of severe spinal deformities and minimally invasive treatment of various spinal diseases, including transforaminal endoscopy, posterior interlaminar endoscopy, unilateral biportal endoscopy and minimally invasive vertebroplasty for compression fractures. It has published extensively in renowned Chinese and international journals, including Spine, European Spine Journal, The Spine Journal, Chinese Medical Journal (English Edition), Chinese Medical Journal, Chinese Journal of Orthopaedics, Chinese Journal of Surgery and Chinese Journal of Spine and Spinal Cord. It has compiled and published numerous professional works, including Spinal Internal Fixation, Chinese Orthopedic Therapeutics, Atlas of Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery, Extensive Discussion of Special Orthopedic Clinical Cases—Spinal Surgery Volume and Practical Cervical Spine Surgery. The department emphasizes close integration of research and clinical practice and supports translational innovation, and has obtained 10+ national and provincial/ministerial projects, including the National Key R&D Program, research funding exceeding 20 million yuan and 10+ granted patents. It has long focused on developing future professionals; 17 doctoral students and 5 master’s students have graduated, and 1 postdoctoral fellow has completed training.

For international exchange, through cooperation with a German spinal surgery center, the department established China’s first Sino-German Spinal Surgery Cooperation Center. It has sent mid-level physicians abroad for visiting exchanges for many consecutive years to learn advanced international diagnostic, treatment and surgical techniques, and was the first in China to conduct related research. In recent years, together with partner hospitals, the department co-hosted the Peking University–Harvard Academic Forum with Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, engaging in in-depth exchange on current standards for diagnosis and treatment, complication prevention, innovative concepts and related surgical techniques in spinal surgery. While promoting mutual understanding and development, these activities also demonstrated the department’s academic level and enhanced its influence.

The department actively participates in charitable causes. With support from all sectors of society, former director Professor Liu Haiying established the Beijing Haiying Spine Health Public Welfare Foundation. For 3 consecutive years it received special central-government funding to conduct a national public-welfare demonstration project assisting impoverished patients with spinal disease. Its mission is to “promote humanitarianism, carry forward the Chinese nation’s traditional virtue of helping the poor and those in difficulty, and promote the development of health for all.” It assists impoverished spinal patients in western and less-developed regions and has achieved positive social effects. During the 13 years since its establishment, the Foundation has assisted 422 patients with severe spinal disease requiring surgical treatment; the Department of Spinal Surgery of Peking University People’s Hospital performed 247 scoliosis and ankylosing spondylitis correction operations. It undertook the National Health Commission’s “National Epidemiological Survey of Adolescent Scoliosis” project and screened more than 100,000 children and adolescents. For many consecutive years it undertook special appropriations under “Central Government Purchase of Services from Social Organizations.” It received the Ministry of Civil Affairs’ “China Charity Award” and was recognized by the Tibet Autonomous Region Disabled Persons’ Federation as an “Aid-Tibet Organization.”

Through more than 80 years of inheritance, our predecessors worked diligently, advanced vigorously and strived for the summit. The Department of Spinal Surgery of Peking University People’s Hospital has passed through an extraordinary era and is now advancing vigorously and united in purpose. Upholding the hospital motto “benevolence and universal love, intelligence and precision, integrity and purity,” with strong support from hospital leadership and under the guidance of academic leader Professor Zeng Yan, all department members are united and enterprising, continuing to contribute to the development of spinal surgery in China.