Department of Cardiac Surgery

The Department of Cardiac Surgery at Peking Union Medical College Hospital has a glorious history, originating from the Thoracic Surgery Department established by the renowned Chinese surgeon Academician Wu Yingkai in 1952. In 1994, the department became an independent tertiary specialty at PUMCH, with Professor Liu Xiaocheng (1994-2001) and Academician Zhu Xiaodong (2003-2004) serving as directors. The current director is Professor Miao Qi. The department has 24 inpatient beds and currently employs 1 chief physician, 3 associate chief physicians, 1 attending physician, 2 resident physicians, and 2 perfusionists, along with 1 doctoral student and 2 master's students. The department sees approximately 4,000 outpatient visits annually, admits over 500 patients each year, and performs more than 350 open-heart surgeries under cardiopulmonary bypass annually, along with over 100 off-pump cardiac surgeries. The department adheres to cutting-edge diagnostic and treatment concepts and international guidelines to provide services to patients, placing great emphasis on academic exchanges with renowned cardiac centers both domestically and internationally. In recent years, the department has established fixed collaborations and academic exchanges with world-class hospitals such as the Cleveland Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital, Milan Medical Center, McGill University Health Centre, and the Japanese Heart Institute, with regular reciprocal visits. Several physicians from the department have received clinical training at these cardiac centers and have invited renowned cardiovascular surgeons from abroad to perform surgical demonstrations and academic lectures.

The Department of Cardiac Surgery at Peking Union Medical College Hospital specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of complex critical cases. Relying on the hospital's strong comprehensive capabilities, the department emphasizes multidisciplinary teamwork and has carved out a unique path of development, with over half of the patients admitted having concurrent multi-organ/system diseases and critical conditions. In close collaboration with related departments such as cardiology, anesthesiology, ICU, interventional radiology, infectious diseases, immunology, and general internal medicine, the level of care for complex critical patients has reached a leading position domestically and is on par internationally.

The types of surgeries performed by the Department of Cardiac Surgery at Peking Union Medical College Hospital include:

1. Surgical treatment for coronary artery disease, including coronary artery bypass grafting, ventricular wall aneurysm resection, and surgical treatment for ischemic mitral regurgitation. The department employs advanced treatment concepts such as complete arterialization, routinely using the internal mammary artery, and striving for total arterial grafting in younger patients, achieving optimal short- and long-term outcomes. In recent years, the no-touch technique for harvesting the great saphenous vein has significantly reduced surgical trauma to the graft vessels, improving long-term patency rates.

2. Valve surgery, including various or combined valve replacement/repair surgeries, reoperation for valve replacement, aortic root abscess, and concomitant atrial fibrillation radiofrequency ablation. The success rate of valve repair surgeries has further improved in recent years, preserving the patient's native valve, reducing postoperative heart function loss, and avoiding lifelong anticoagulation. Surgical treatment for infectious endocarditis has become a distinctive diagnostic and therapeutic project. Adhering to advanced international concepts, the department advocates early surgery for patients with active infective endocarditis who meet surgical indications, improving valve repair rates and reducing complications.

3. Aortic surgery, including surgical treatment for aortic aneurysms and aortic dissections, such as Bentall, David, Wheat procedures, ascending aortic replacement, hemi-arch/total arch replacement, elephant trunk procedures, and endovascular stent grafting for the descending aorta.

4. Correction of congenital heart disease, including surgical correction of atrial septal defects, ventricular septal defects, patent ductus arteriosus, Tetralogy of Fallot, double outlet right ventricle, total anomalous pulmonary venous return, and tricuspid valve displacement (e.g., Ebstein anomaly, endocardial cushion defects, pulmonary artery atresia). In recent years, the department has successfully performed trans-thoracic small incision and femoral artery access procedures for atrial septal defect and patent ductus arteriosus closure, resulting in minimal surgical trauma, rapid recovery, and excellent cosmetic outcomes.

5. Chronic pulmonary embolism with endarterectomy.

6. Pericardiectomy for constrictive pericarditis.

7. Treatment of heart failure, including circulatory support. Routine use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for heart failure/respiratory failure support saves the lives of critically ill patients.

8. Management of rare and complex cases, including cardiac tumors, cardiac pheochromocytomas, intravascular smooth muscle tumors extending to the right heart chambers or even pulmonary arteries, cardiac surgeries for patients with concurrent systemic malignancies, and cardiac surgeries for dialysis patients.

In terms of education, the Department of Cardiac Surgery at Peking Union Medical College Hospital is responsible for the training of undergraduate and graduate students from China Union Medical University and has become a training base for cardiac surgery residents in Beijing.

In terms of research, the department undertakes multiple research projects both internally and externally. Annually, it publishes over ten papers in domestic core journals and has articles published in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery. The department participated in the National Science and Technology Ministry's '15th Five-Year Plan' project on standardized diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary embolism in 2003, received funding from the Chinese Medical Foundation (CMB) in 2009 to conduct research on bloodless cardiac surgery, and obtained funding from the Beijing Natural Science Foundation in 2010 for research on 'VEGF specifically binding to collagen membranes to promote cardiac function recovery after myocardial infarction.' In 2015, the department undertook a sub-project of the National High-Tech R&D Program (863 Project) on 'Lumen-type precision cell 3D printing systems for vascular repair.' Currently, several ongoing research projects are in collaboration with institutions such as the Institute of Genetics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, and the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, while also undertaking multiple national clinical research special projects as sub-projects.