Main Campus Thoracic Surgery Department

The Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery of Municipal Hospital was jointly established by the hospital’s Department of Thoracic Surgery and Department of Cardiac Surgery. The Department of Cardiac Surgery is a distinctive specialty for the treatment of adult heart disease in Qingdao; its volume of coronary artery bypass grafting and major-vessel surgery ranks first in the Qingdao area, and it has now become one of the cardiac surgery departments with the highest level of adult cardiac surgical treatment in Shandong Province. The thoracic surgery specialty was established in 1954. After decades of development, minimally invasive surgery for pulmonary diseases has developed into a distinctive discipline in Qingdao, with particular expertise in thoracoscopic minimally invasive surgical treatment of lung cancer and esophageal and gastric cardia cancer. It is the only department in the Jiaodong Peninsula to perform laparoscopic hiatal hernia repair and antireflux surgery. The department currently has 35 beds and 22 medical and nursing staff members, including ３ chief physicians, 6 associate chief physicians, 4 doctors with doctoral degrees, and 1 doctor with a master’s degree. The department is equipped with ECMO, IABP, a cardiovascular angiography system, an intravascular ultrasound imaging system (IVUS), electrophysiology and hemodynamic systems, thoracoscopes, mediastinoscopes, ventilators, monitors, and other equipment. It treats coronary heart disease, valvular disease, major-vessel disease, congenital heart disease, lung cancer, esophageal cancer, mediastinal tumors, gastroesophageal reflux disease, hiatal hernia, and other conditions. More than ４００ cardiac operations and nearly 400 lung and esophageal operations are performed each year. The complexity and quality of the operations performed have reached an advanced level in China, and some operations have reached an internationally advanced level. The department has developed its own distinctive medical features and advantages in clinical practice and is one of the largest and strongest centers in Shandong Province for the medical care, scientific research, and teaching of heart disease, lung cancer, and esophageal cancer.

Professional specialties:

１　Comprehensive research on the treatment of coronary heart disease

With the development of China’s aging society, coronary heart disease has become the most important disease affecting the health and lives of the people among cardiovascular diseases at present. The main work undertaken includes:

（１）Multicenter clinical research on the treatment of acute myocardial infarction. The treatment of acute myocardial infarction is one of the urgent challenges that cardiac surgery must solve today. Under the leadership of our department, joint medical-surgical research involving multiple cardiac centers in the Qingdao area has been conducted to provide a basis for formulating corresponding standards and treatment pathways for acute myocardial infarction. A series of complex and critical operations are performed in high-risk patients, including CABG for acute myocardial infarction, concomitant ventricular aneurysm resection, ventricular septal perforation repair, and simultaneous AVR+MVR surgery. Preoperative preparation, operative management, and postoperative recovery have reached a leading level in China. Application research on circulatory and respiratory (ECMO) support for critically ill patients is also being conducted.

（２）Clinical application of hybrid surgery:

By taking advantage of the respective strengths of interventional procedures and bypass surgery, a new modality of “hybrid” surgical treatment for coronary heart disease has emerged. The “hybrid” technique for coronary heart disease is particularly suitable for elderly patients and for patients with renal insufficiency or respiratory insufficiency who cannot tolerate open-chest surgery, especially for vessel recanalization within ６h in ＡＭＩ patients. It both reduces the trauma of surgery and lowers the risks of internal-medicine intervention, making early surgical treatment feasible for patients who previously could not undergo it.

（３）Basic and clinical research on stem cells in the treatment of coronary heart disease

The Texas Heart Institute in the United States is one of the ten best-known centers for the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease in the United States and indeed worldwide. Stem-cell treatment for heart disease is also one of the institute’s most notable research achievements in recent years. Through cooperation with the Texas Heart Institute in the United States, joint research is being conducted to address the current problems in stem-cell transplantation for the treatment of coronary heart disease, including the sources of differentiation of autologous and allogeneic stem cells, the transplantation route, stem-cell survival and long-term outcomes, and complications.

３ Aortic surgery

Our center currently provides treatment for acute aortic dissection and aortic aneurysms. The operations performed include aortic arch replacement, the DAVID procedure, the Bentall procedure, Bentall+CABG surgery, and ascending aortic replacement. We took the lead in China in performing modified MINI-ROOT surgery to treat Marfan syndrome or Marfan syndrome complicated by Stanford type A dissection. We also perform hybrid surgery for acute aortic dissection involving artificial covered stent/carotid artery bypass covered-stent implantation (hybrid surgery).

4 Comprehensive individualized treatment of lung cancer

（1）Minimally invasive surgical treatment of lung cancer With advances in and the maturation of technology, an increasing number of patients with lung cancer are receiving thoracoscopic minimally invasive surgery. At present, 70% of the department’s lung cancer operations are performed thoracoscopically. The department’s surgical team can perform minimally invasive lobectomy, segmentectomy, sleeve resection, single-port thoracoscopic pulmonary resection, and other operations, with a technical level that is leading in China. The concept of rapid recovery after surgery has truly been put into clinical practice.

（2）Individualized treatment of lung cancer The complexity of lung cancer leads to considerable differences in clinical treatment outcomes. With the aid of genetic diagnostic technology, the department performs molecular targeted therapy for patients with mutations based on their genetic test results before and after surgery. Related research has received funding from the Municipal Bureau of Science and Technology and related funds. Relatively satisfactory results have been obtained.

（3）Salvage surgery for locally advanced lung cancer after high-dose radiotherapy and chemotherapy For patients who cannot undergo surgery or are temporarily unsuitable for surgery and therefore receive radiotherapy and chemotherapy, surgery is performed when local progression occurs after failure of radiotherapy and chemotherapy and examination reveals no metastasis. Good surgical outcomes have been achieved. The results of related research have been accepted for publication and published in national-level journals.

5 Minimally invasive surgery for esophageal and gastric cardia cancer

Because surgery for esophageal and gastric cardia cancer causes substantial trauma, patients require a long recovery time, and complications are numerous. Therefore, minimally invasive esophagectomy can effectively reduce surgical trauma, accelerate patient recovery, and reduce the occurrence of complications. The department currently performs combined thoracoscopic and laparoscopic resection of esophageal and gastric cardia cancer. A new esophagogastric side-to-side anastomosis technique is used, effectively reducing the occurrence of anastomotic leakage.

6. Laparoscopic treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease and hiatal hernia With the emergence of an aging population and changes in lifestyle, an increasing number of people are developing gastroesophageal reflux disease, and some patients have concomitant hiatal hernia. Most of these patients receive conservative medical treatment from internal medicine, but ultimately some patients must undergo surgery because of severe reflux and compression or incarceration of herniated organs. Previous operations were performed through thoracotomy, causing substantial surgical trauma; most elderly patients could not tolerate the operation and consequently gave up treatment. In recent years, by learning advanced techniques from China and abroad, we took the lead in this region in performing laparoscopic hiatal hernia repair and antireflux surgery. We successfully repaired the hiatal defect in a 95-year-old patient, restoring the patient’s ability to eat and health. The results were reported by multiple media outlets.

7 Thoracoscopic surgery for pneumothorax and pulmonary bullae

Pneumothorax and pulmonary bullae are common among adolescents, and treatment after onset mainly consists of drainage and surgery. After years of practice, our department has taken into account the fact that patients with pneumothorax and pulmonary bullae are mostly young people with high cosmetic demands. We perform CVP drainage and axillary drainage to reduce scar formation and achieve a cosmetic outcome. For patients requiring surgery, we actively perform surgery through a single-port axillary approach, achieving the goal of removing the bullae while effectively reducing surgical trauma and also meeting cosmetic objectives.

We attach equal importance to clinical care, teaching, and scientific research; use teaching and research to promote clinical development; strengthen the development of teaching and research talent; cultivate versatile professionals who give equal weight to clinical care, teaching, and scientific research; establish a teaching and research talent team combining senior, mid-career, and young members with a rational professional-title composition; and continuously improve teaching and research capabilities and the level and quality of research achievements. In line with the development direction of distinctive disciplines, we leverage the advantage of closely integrating clinical and basic research and, through prospective clinical research and basic scientific research, investigate the risk factors, pathogenesis, and pharmacological protective mechanisms of critical cardiovascular diseases. Research directions cover hot topics including coronary heart disease, the pathogenesis of hypertension, right heart failure and left ventricular diastolic dysfunction, individualized diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer, rapid recovery after lung cancer surgery, surgical treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease, and the molecular pathology of lung cancer,

In the past 3 years, the Cardiac Center has undertaken more than 15 provincial-, municipal-, and bureau-level scientific research projects, published more than 100 national-level academic papers, published 8 medical books, received 1 Shandong Provincial Medical Science and Technology Innovation Achievement Award, and received 4 Qingdao Science and Technology Progress Awards.

Cultural brand: Care for the heart with love, mend the heart with love

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