Thoracic Surgery

Xuanwu Hospital's thoracic surgery grew from its thoracic and cardiovascular surgery department, founded in the early 1980s under Professors Dong Zongjun and Zhang Jian. Professor Zhi Xiuyi became director in 2002; Professor Zhang Yi succeeded him in May 2018, with Zhi as chief expert. The hospital describes centers for lung cancer and myasthenia gravis. Since moving to the southern ward building on 17 March 2019 it has two wards, 56 designated and 65 open beds. Its 42 staff comprise 17 clinical physicians (14 thoracic surgeons and three medical oncologists), two researchers, one postdoctoral researcher and 22 nurses; ten have senior professional rank, including four chief and six associate chief physicians, alongside three professors, one associate professor, one doctoral and two master's supervisors, and 13 doctoral degree holders. The department emphasizes minimally invasive lung cancer surgery and multidisciplinary care. It reports early use of video-assisted thoracoscopy, 3D thoracoscopy and video mediastinoscopy, broad adoption of two-micrometer thulium laser lung resection, and over 90% single-port thoracoscopy. Complex procedures include bronchial and pulmonary arterial double-sleeve resection, superior vena cava resection and repair, extensive chest wall resection, carinal resection, thoracoscopic lung resection, subxiphoid mediastinal tumor resection and extended thymectomy, and combined thoracoscopic-laparoscopic esophagectomy. It introduced pretreatment clinical lung-cancer staging and image-guided radiofrequency ablation, established thulium laser and ablation training bases, and works with United Family Healthcare in an international service offering da Vinci robot-assisted thoracic surgery. It reports leadership in smoking control, early lung cancer detection, staging and multidisciplinary treatment, and received ATEP demonstration-center recognition in 2017. A Capital Medical University lung cancer center was founded with other departments in 2003, with more than ten domestic partner centers and collaborations with specialists in the US, Canada, UK, Italy, Spain, Japan and Korea. In July 2019 Xuanwu established an integrated lung cancer center spanning screening, early detection, minimally invasive and comprehensive treatment, follow-up and chronic disease management. In August 2020 thoracic surgery led establishment of the oncology center of the national geriatric diseases clinical research center. With neurology and other departments it also established a myasthenia gravis center, emphasizing generalized disease, multidisciplinary treatment, research and education. The department reports participation in over 40 research projects, more than RMB 50 million in funding, over 150 papers including more than 50 SCI papers, over ten authored and ten contributed thoracic surgery and lung cancer books. It teaches at Capital Medical University, has trained over ten doctoral and master's graduates and has over 20 current graduate students and a postdoctoral station. Since 2005 it has held national courses and currently offers two national and two Beijing continuing-education projects annually.