Peking University People’s Hospital  
The Department of Gastroenterological Surgery

About Us

    The Department of Gastroenterological Surgery at Peking University People’s Hospital offers sophisticated, compassionate care and with advanced and innovative treatments for patients with various types of general and gastrointestinal conditions.

    The Department of Gastroenterological Surgery has one of the largest and most experienced groups of gastroenterological and general surgeons in China. The department’s highly skilled surgeons offer the latest surgical treatments, including: radical resection of colorectal carcinoma, gastrectomy, thyroidectomy, cholecystectomy, appendectomy, herniorrhaphy and PPH. With a well experienced and equipped robotic laparoscopic practice, we are competent in the areas of abdominal wall hernias, benign and malignant colorectal disease, and cholelithiasis, as well as morbid obesity.

Highly experienced Medical Staff
    There are nineteen faculty surgeons in the department, including 8 professors, 7 associated professors, 2 attending surgeons and 2 surgeons. The 19 staff surgeons perform more than 1400 operations annually. Having studied and trained in some of the most prominent medical centers in the world, our surgeons are at the forefront of the medical field, creating surgical techniques and treatments which bring significant scientific advances to patient care. They mainly focus on robotic and laparoscopic surgery, colorectal surgery, gastric surgery, standard chemotherapy and radiotherapy for the patients with cancer, with MDT meetings for complicated cases.
    Many of our doctors are recognized internationally, including the former president of Peking University People’s Hospital, Prof. Wang Shan and the chief of the department, Prof. Ye Yingjiang. They are experts in the field of Gastrointestinal Oncological Surgery.

Standard treatment of gastrointestinal conditions
    Our department is the first to introduce complete mesocolic excision (CME) and extra-levator abdominoperineal excision (ELAPE) techniques to treat colorectal cancer in China. These surgical approaches for colorectal cancer are safe and feasible, which means a better prognosis than conventional surgery.
    Our department has specialized teams of oncologists to handle malignancies of the stomach, such as gastric cancer, gastric intestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), neuroendocrine cancer (NEC) and gastric lymphoma,etc. The diagnosis and treatment of GISTs are at the forefront in China. Those patients with recurrent, metastatic, high-riskunresectable diseases are offered treatment through MDT.

Minimally invasive surgery
    In our department, minimally invasive surgery — also called laparoscopic surgery — is a standard of care and our preferred surgical approach to treat a wide range of conditions. Minimally invasive surgical techniques that typically result in less blood loss, reduced pain and faster recovery are used widely. Using high-definition imaging technology and precision instruments, our surgeons work through few tiny incisions to perform hundreds of procedures such as robotic/ laparoscopic colonic and rectal surgery, robotic/ laparoscopic gastric surgery, laparoscopic bariatric surgery, laparoscopic hernia repair and so on. This high-volume of experience means a better outcome for patients and helps our surgeons in leading new innovations in the field and integrating these techniquesour patient care.

A Personalized, Multidisciplinary Team Approach to Treatment (MDT)
    The department emphasizes on a collaborative team approach allowing accurate diagnoses and surgical intervention in an efficient and timely manner. The surgeons communicate closely with other specialists involved in the care of patients. The weekly conference features active participation of colleagues from surgery, internal medicine, pathology, radiology, oncology, etc. All new cases are presented and discussed by the group, and management is enhanced by the multidisciplinary perspective. For patients with advanced disease, multimodality therapy, consisting of surgery, neoadjuvantadjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy, play a very important role. The multidisciplinary approach provides patients with the expert care they need at this crucial time, with multiple specialists examining each patient and reaching a consensus on the most beneficial treatment.

The Latest Procedures & Treatments
    Its not just our expertise that makes us stand out from many of the worlds surgeons, its also our commitment to pushing forward, to finding what will work best for each patients individual condition. As such, we have pioneered numerous surgical techniques and procedures that are improving the lives of our patients.

1. Surgical robot system
    The surgical robot, also known as the "da Vinci surgical", with laparoscopic surgical instruments and control system, is currently the most advanced surgical platform in the world, capable of performing complicated operations with a minimally invasive approach. Its technical superiority and safety has been approved by a vast amount of surgeons and patients. Since the surgical robot was putclinical application, it has improved minimally invasive techniques to new height in many surgical fields, and has quickly established an important position in the field of precise minimally invasive surgery. During robotic operations, surgeons will experience clear broad 3D vision and higher precise operating movement, which is helpful for improving the efficiency of surgeons and expanding the traditional application of minimally invasive surgery. Most importantly robotic surgery can reduce surgical trauma, operative complications and blood loss, ultimately improving the effect of surgery.

2. Transanal TME operation
    In 2014,the academic leaders of our department, Professor Wang Shan and Professor Ye Yingjiang, introduced the concept of "Transanal TME" for rectal cancerChina We have sent physician to Florida hospital in USA learning Transanal TME surgical technique. Transanal TME is a brand new technique that can solve the technical difficulties of traditional TME operation. There are two advantages of Transanal TME technique: ① Bottom-up operation makes it easier to isolate the inferior rectum, which is helpful for reducing the positive rate of circumferential resection margin (CRM). ② The pull-drop exposure mode can reveal the plexus pelvinus more effectively, thus reducing the incidence of damage to the tissues. We are one of the few institutions in China, capable of performing the"Transanal TME" procedure.

3. Endoscopic thyroid operation
    Thyroid disease is common in women. The surgical scar caused by traditional thyroid operations may cause women to feel self-conscious.  Other complications include unwelcome cervical discomfort and paresthesia due to cutaneus nerve dividing. For these reasons, a growing number of female patients, younger ones especially, require higher quality in the appearance of the surgical site after operation. With the development of endoscopic equipment and technological improvements, many surgeons began to explore endoscopic thyroid operation techniques. In the beginning, conversions to open surgery were often due to the open surgery narrow operating gap, difficulty of mobility and hemostasis. Recently, surgeons from Japan and China introduced the technique of dividing prethoracic subcutaneous space as a way to enlarge the cervical subcutaneous space, which created sufficient room for operation. Our department has performed endoscopic thyroid operations since 2015, and we are one of only a few numbers of medical centers in Beijing that can perform this operation. 27 patients so far have recieved this operation and none of them have reported any complications. All 27 patients were satisfied with their cosmetic effect. In addition, we apply the intra-operative monitoring during complicated thyroid surgery. The monitoring of the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) function by recording the compound muscle action potential (CMAP) of lateral cricoarytenoid muscle (LCA) is a safe, effective and feasible method to prevent and reduce RLN permanent injury.

4. Intraperitoneal hyperthermic perfusion chemotherapy, (IHPC)
    Intraperitoneal hyperthermic perfusion chemotherapy (IHPC) is an emerging adjuvant therapy technique of abdominal malignant tumors. IHPC is especially effective in treating and preventing peritoneal planting metastases of malignant tumors such as gastric cancer, colorectal cancer and pseudomyxoma and malignant ascites. IHPC makes the cavity concentration of anticancer drugs far higher, up to hundreds of times the concentration than that in the systemic circulation. High concentrations of anticancer drugs can directly kill and eliminate the remaining isolated tumor cells and tiny lesions in cavity. In the meantime low concentrations of anticancer drugs can reduceeliminate the side effects. Our department purchased related equipment and introduced the IHPC technique in 2012. By now more than 50 patients have been treated with IHPC, 90% of them have significant improvement in ascites, part of these patients have longer survival time.

Dedicated to Your Health
    Offering patients superior surgical care is what we do, all day, every day. Its what makes us leaders in our field, propels us to uncover new and better treatments and keeps our patients individualized needs our first concern. We want our patients to be healthy and we aim to do everything in our power to help patients achieve and sustain the highest quality of life.

For more information, Contact Us:
Department of Gastroenterological Surgery
11 Xizhimen Nan Street, Xicheng District, Beijing, P. R. CHINA
Box: 100044
Telephone: 8610-88326600