Pain Medicine

The Department of Pain was established in the 1980s and has developed for nearly 30 years to date. The Pain Outpatient Clinic was established in 1987. The Pain Ward was established in 2003, making the hospital the earliest among the tertiary grade-A hospitals in our city to specialize in pain treatment. In September 2019, due to the needs of hospital and discipline development, the Department of Pain of the East Campus of Qingdao Municipal Hospital was established. It is a national training base for transforaminal endoscopy, a National Clinical Key Specialty, a unit of the Pain Specialty Medical Consortium of Shandong Provincial Hospital, and a standardized training base for pain physicians in Shandong Province. After more than 30 years of development, the department has made tremendous progress in clinical practice, teaching, and scientific research.

The Department of Pain of the East Campus of Qingdao Municipal Hospital has more than 20 medical and nursing staff members in total, including 6 master's degree holders, 1 person with a senior professional title, 1 associate chief physician, and 1 attending physician. It has 45 open beds and nearly 10,000 outpatient visits annually. Each year, it admits more than 1,000 patients with various types of chronic pain. In line with international clinical diagnosis and treatment guidelines, it has established standardized diagnosis and treatment protocols for chronic pain and a complete follow-up system. It has taken the lead in performing various pain-related minimally invasive procedures, including transforaminal endoscopic discectomy, spinal cord stimulation electrode implantation, intrathecal pump implantation, trigeminal nerve balloon compression, trigeminal nerve radiofrequency thermocoagulation, minimally invasive plasma ablation of cervical and lumbar intervertebral discs, upper-limb joint release, and peripheral nerve radiofrequency techniques. The complete follow-up system ensures subsequent treatment for patients and improves their quality of life.

Transforaminal endoscopy, spinal cord stimulation (SCS), and intrathecal pump technology are the department's three core technologies. They have cured large numbers of patients with chronic intractable pain, including lumbar disc herniation, neuropathic pain, and cancer pain, enabling many difficult and complicated conditions to be effectively treated and earning the trust and praise of patients. They offer minimal trauma, few side effects, and rapid postoperative recovery. The trigeminal nerve balloon-compression technology introduced this year provides patients with safer, painless, and definitive relief from the suffering of trigeminal neuralgia. The department's clinical technical level is leading throughout the province and even nationwide.

In recent years, the department has strengthened domestic and international cooperation. Director Chen Fuqiang successively made academic visits to Mayo Clinic in the United States, Cleveland University in the United States, and Austin University in Australia, among others; many staff members also visited renowned hospitals in China to study advanced diagnostic and treatment techniques. Since 2015, it has held the annual “Qingdao Summit Forum on Neuropathic Pain.” It has repeatedly cooperated with China–US and China–Australia partners, attracting pain physicians from multiple hospitals across the country, including Beijing and Shanghai, to visit and study at our hospital. It participated in the national multicenter study of intrathecal morphine pumps and spinal cord stimulation and successfully completed the relevant research component to a high standard. Long-term cooperative relationships have been established with the three institutions, and multicenter clinical research is being conducted jointly.

The department places great importance on scientific research and teaching. Two projects received, respectively, the Third Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress of Shandong Province and the Second Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress of Qingdao. Two projects respectively passed appraisal by the Shandong Provincial Department of Science and Technology and the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Science and Technology. Among the completed projects, 1 was a project of the Shandong Provincial Department of Science and Technology, 2 were projects of the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Science and Technology, and 2 were projects of the Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission; they received a total of more than RMB 800,000 in funding and awards. Current approved projects under research include 1 from the Shandong Provincial Department of Science and Technology, 3 from the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Science and Technology, 1 from the Municipal Health Bureau, and 1 from the Shinan District Bureau of Science and Technology. More than 50 papers have been published in official national publications, including 18 Chinese-level, 12 national-level, and 15 provincial-level papers; 5 were indexed by SCI. More than 30 postgraduate students and physicians undergoing further training have been trained.

Editing time: 2026/5/20 15:43:59.