Department of Thoracic Surgery

The Department of Thoracic Surgery of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University has a long history that can trace back to 1951, when the hospital's predecessor, the former Northwest Hospital, set up the chest specialty and completed the first esophageal cancer resection, esophagofundostomy, and tuberculosis lobectomy in Shanxi Province. In mid-1970s, complicated operations such as sternum replacement and thoracic reconstruction were performed. In 1995, radical operation of cancer in upper and middle esophagus was performed by neck, chest and abdomen three incision or the left neck and left chest two incision, which showed great efficacy. In the same year, bronchial sleeve resection was performed, which laid the foundation for the development of tracheal surgery. Since 2010, a large number of thoracoscopic surgeries and severe thoracic trauma surgeries have been carried out. Most of the operations, such as lobectomy, mediastinal tumor resection, and radical operation of esophageal cancer, are performed under endoscope. With the development of university and hospital, the department is now responsible for medical, teaching and research work of department of general thoracic surgery. The department is one of the first batch of master degree awarding points in the hospital, with 4 master supervisors now. At present, there are 50 beds available, which can accommodate 65 patients at the same time. Among 45 medical technicians, 15 are clinical doctors, 3 professors, 2 associate professors, 6 doctors and 4 masters.

In recent years, bearing the idea of “bring in and go out”, our department attached great importance on young talents training, echelon construction, and comprehensive improvement of medical, scientific research and teaching work. Up to now, we already have 5 times study abroad and 6 times study domestically. It also strengthens its comprehensive cooperation with top universities like University of California, Texas State University, Peking University, Fudan University, Sichuan University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, and Zhejiang University. Right now, our department has formed complete sub-specialty construction in lung surgery, esophageal surgery, chest wall surgery, minimally invasive surgery and interventional surgery. In surgeries for common diseases as lung cancer, esophageal cancer, mediastinal tumor, huge chest wall tumor, lung bullae, the technology of diagnosis and treatment has improved significantly, including single portal operation, single portal thoracoscopic lobectomy, segmentectomy, total laparoscopic three-incision esophageal cancer radical surgery, complex mediastinal tumor resection, 3D printed chest wall reconstruction and thoracic major vascular replacement, thoracoscopic mediastinal giant tumor resection, single-portal thoracoscopic hand sweat surgery, EBUS and airway endoscopy, radiofrequency and microwave treatment of chest tumors. All these advanced technologies are mature. We also develop new clinical technologies and therapies vigorously, striving to build a clinical department with strong foundations, outstanding professional skills, distinctive features and advanced technologies.

In addition, our department pays attention to the development of scientific research, taking programs from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Fundamental Research Fund of the Central University, Science and Technology Public Relations Project of Shaanxi Province, Xi'an Jiaotong University, our hospital, and participating in many clinical researches. The department undertakes the training of Master of Surgery (including international students) of Xi'an Jiaotong University, as well as the teaching work of 5-year, 7-year, 8-year clinical medicine students and internship of students from Xi'an Medical College. Our base won 2 provincial and ministerial teaching awards.

In this new era of medical science development, our department gather together, innovating and striving, to pursue excellency, stepping into the new track of rapid development and achieving the comprehensive development of medicine, scientific research and teaching to a higher level.