Cerebrovascular Disease Center

The Cerebrovascular Disease Center of Renji Hospital, affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, was officially established in May 2021. The establishment of the Cerebrovascular Disease Center was not only an important measure for the hospital to deepen healthcare-system reform and implement the 14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Medical Science and Technology, but also responded to the public’s need for health and had landmark significance for strengthening the disciplines. The Center was jointly established by expert physicians from the departments of neurology and neurosurgery who specialize in cerebrovascular diseases. It adheres to an integrated, scientifically based model of stroke diagnosis and treatment that is patient-centered and disease-led, breaks through traditional disciplinary boundaries, and optimizes the allocation of disciplinary resources. It is a clinical diagnosis-and-treatment and research platform for cerebrovascular diseases integrating medical care, education, research, prevention, and management.

At present, the Center at the South Campus has two inpatient wards and one neurointensive care unit (NICU), with 48 operational beds. It has an independent 24-hour emergency service for cerebrovascular diseases, a general outpatient clinic operating five and a half days per week, and specialty clinics for stroke prevention and screening, cerebrovascular intervention, headache, post-stroke cognitive impairment, and other specific conditions. The Center has 17 physicians, including 3 chief physicians, 3 deputy chief physicians, 7 attending physicians, and 4 resident physicians; all have postgraduate qualifications or higher. The Center is fully equipped with video electroencephalography equipment, ambulatory electroencephalography equipment, electromyography equipment, ambulatory electrocardiography equipment, ambulatory blood-pressure monitors, color Doppler ultrasound diagnostic equipment, transcranial magnetic stimulation equipment, pneumatic therapy equipment, centrifuges, ultra-low-temperature freezers, and other equipment.

Under the leadership of Director Wan Jieqing, the Center is guided by the needs of cerebrovascular disease prevention and treatment and adopts an internationally advanced comprehensive stroke-center model of care. It has established a green channel for emergency treatment of acute cerebrovascular diseases. Its treatment of intracranial and extracranial arterial stenosis with stenting, endovascular treatment of complex intracranial aneurysms, minimally invasive surgical treatment of cerebral hemorrhage, and comprehensive treatment of cerebrovascular diseases has reached a high international level. Its integrated, standardized, and process-based stroke diagnosis-and-treatment model is bringing substantial benefits to patients.

During the nearly three years since its establishment, the Center has continuously strengthened team building and encouraged every physician to innovate actively and strive for progress. On the basis of deep integration between neurology and neurosurgery, it has established three teams: a cerebrovascular intervention and surgery team, a neurocritical care team, and a comprehensive treatment team. In collaboration with the cerebrovascular disease team of the Department of Neurosurgery at the East Campus, it has advanced in parallel in performing various highly complex operations and has gradually developed a specialized cerebrovascular disease treatment system with distinctive Renji characteristics.

As of the end of December 2023, the East and South Campuses together admitted more than 4,000 patients annually, with nearly 60,000 outpatient and emergency encounters. Emergency thrombectomy was performed for more than 250 patients with acute stroke, and emergency endovascular treatment was performed in more than 200 cases of aneurysmal hemorrhage. More than 2,000 surgical procedures were performed, including minimally invasive endovascular intervention or clipping for intracranial or extracranial arterial stenosis or occlusion, cerebral hemorrhage, and cerebral aneurysms, as well as cerebrovascular bypass surgery. These efforts significantly improved the survival rate and quality of life of patients with cerebrovascular diseases.

In research, under the leadership of Director Wan Jieqing, the Center has actively participated in numerous clinical and basic research projects, applied for and obtained multiple projects under the National Natural Science Foundation of China and other national-level programs, and published numerous articles in leading international journals. It received the Third Prize of the 2022 Shanghai Medical Science and Technology Awards, with Director Wan Jieqing as the first project completer.

In the area of new technologies, the Center has implemented preoperative and intraoperative monitoring during interventional surgery with vascular ultrasonography, including transcranial Doppler (TCD), helping safeguard patients by reducing perioperative complications, and is actively applying for the dissemination and clinical use of new technologies.

In academic exchange, since its establishment, the Cerebrovascular Disease Center has held the annual Pujiang Cerebrovascular Disease Forum and other academic exchange activities. These provide a platform for scientists and researchers in the field of cerebrovascular diseases to exchange knowledge, discuss current frontiers in basic and clinical medical research on cerebrovascular and related diseases, accelerate innovation and translation in cerebrovascular disease prevention and treatment, and promote vigorous disciplinary development.

In certification and training, the Center has obtained certification as a national pharmacology base and a medical-device base, and all Center physicians have obtained GCP certificates. In 2021, the Center also obtained certification as one of the first national advanced-study and training bases for neurointervention. It has trained dozens of visiting physicians from many hospitals throughout China, promoted methods for treating cerebrovascular diseases, and is steadily extending its influence nationwide.

In clinical cooperation, the Center has conducted cross-hospital clinical collaboration. Working with the ENT Hospital affiliated with Fudan University, it performs internal carotid artery embolization through various surgical approaches for patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma invading the internal carotid artery, thereby reducing the possibility of massive intracranial hemorrhage. The patients’ 3-year overall survival and tumor progression-free survival rates increased significantly from the previous 27.7% and 18.9% to 69.1% and 33.9%, respectively.

In community-level public education, the Center has also established medical-consortium partnerships with multiple rehabilitation hospitals. It regularly conducts health education in communities and organizes specialty clinics and teaching ward rounds. The Center’s public-health education work has also progressed well: it regularly updates the official account titled “How Much Do You Know About Stroke,” and its science-popularization lectures conducted jointly with community hospitals have won awards many times.