Spinal Surgery

The Department of Spinal Surgery of Yueyang Hospital was established in 2009. Under the leadership of its first director, Chief Physician Yang Chunlei, and adhering to our hospital’s treatment philosophy of integrating traditional Chinese and Western medicine, the department has focused on spinal degenerative diseases as its main area of research for more than ten years. It has adhered to combining the distinctive features of traditional Chinese medicine with modern medical technology, improving the clinical diagnosis and treatment capabilities and academic level of the department as a whole. The department currently has 35 beds, an annual outpatient volume of 45,000 visits, and more than 2,500 discharges per year. It currently has 9 professional and technical staff members, including 2 chief physicians and 3 deputy chief physicians, all of whom hold a master’s degree or higher in medicine.

The current director of the department, Chief Physician Wang Shuqiang, has inherited and developed Director Yang Chunlei’s academic thought and clinical experience. Combining these with modern diagnostic and treatment technologies, he has established clinical characteristics based on traditional Chinese medicine, guided by Western medicine and integrating Chinese and Western medicine. For various diseases, including cervical and lumbar spine disorders, spinal fractures and metastatic tumors, scoliosis, osteoporosis, and fracture-dislocations, the department has established a whole-course diagnosis and treatment model of “conservative treatment–intervention–minimally invasive treatment–surgery–rehabilitation,” with significant clinical efficacy.

In spinal surgery, for conditions including cervical spondylotic radiculopathy, cervical spondylotic myelopathy, ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament of the cervical spine, cervical spinal canal stenosis, thoracic spinal canal stenosis, lumbar spinal canal stenosis, lumbar disc herniation, lumbar spondylolisthesis, vertebral tumors, scoliosis, burst fractures of the vertebral body, and compression fractures of the spine, the department performs a range of classic procedures, including anterior and posterior cervical decompression, bone grafting, and internal fixation (ACDF, ACCF, and ACAF. ACAF is an original Chinese milestone technology in spinal surgery. It can avoid directly removing the ossified lesion, which is its most important advantage. ACAF does not directly touch or remove the ossified lesion itself, fundamentally avoiding the high risk of spinal cord and nerve root injury caused by direct manipulation of the ossified material in traditional anterior surgery), posterior thoracic decompression, anterior and posterior lumbar decompression and interbody fusion, pedicle screw fixation, the En BLOCK technique for vertebral body resection, and spinal non-fusion techniques. In minimally invasive surgery, with the continuous development of minimally invasive spinal concepts, the department has introduced the Medtronic O-arm and S7 surgical navigation systems, the Joimax percutaneous transforaminal endoscopic system, an ultrasonic bone scalpel, and the Jackson all-carbon-fiber spinal operating table. It performs percutaneous pedicle screw placement, first-generation transforaminal endoscopic procedures, and disc removal under a working channel. In recent years, under the leadership of Director Wang Shuqiang, it has successfully carried out AUSS/UNSES (unilateral-portal non-coaxial spinal endoscopic surgery) and become an international AUSS training base. For senile osteoporotic vertebral fractures, early metastatic spinal bone tumors, vertebral hemangiomas, and other conditions, it performs minimally invasive percutaneous vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty. In recent years, it has successfully performed more than 6,000 various cervical and lumbar spine operations and accumulated extensive experience in comprehensive clinical treatment.

In addition, our department provides specialized acupuncture, physiotherapy, and traditional Chinese medicine treatment. It has hospital-made preparations such as Shenma Jingfu Granules and Shishi Tricolor Plaster. It has optimized comprehensive treatment plans that are highly targeted and can genuinely relieve patients’ pain, fully leveraging the advantages of integrated Chinese and Western medicine treatment and achieving better therapeutic effects than other single treatment methods.