Established in 1957, the thoracic surgery department was one of the earliest thoracic surgery specialties in China and founded by famous Chinese thoracic and cardiac surgeons, Prof Huang Jiasi and Gu Kaishi.

Awarded the national key specialty in 2011, the department is the city’s standardized surgical training center for residents major in thoracic and cardiac surgery and training center for specialized doctors. It has carried out standardized, comprehensive and systematic international clinical education program, and has been awarded the first and only demonstration center on the Chinese mainland by Asian Thoracoscopy Education Program(ATEP).

The thoracic surgery consists of many specialized subjects, such as pulmonary surgery, mediastinal surgery, esophageal surgery, tracheal surgery and lung transplant surgery. It routinely carries out all kinds of minimally invasive and complex lung surgery, huge mediastinal tumor surgery and minimally invasive mediastinal tumor surgery, all kinds of esophageal cancer surgery and benign esophageal diseases, tracheal surgery, lung transplant surgery, all kinds of Da Vinci robotic surgery, pneumothorax, chest wall tumor surgery, funnel chest, pigeon chest, and all kinds of complicated thoracic surgeries. The quantity and difficulty of surgeries are in the international leading position.

At present, the thoracic surgery department has more than 200 beds in five general wards, four special wards, one ICU ward, 20 operating rooms and one esophageal endoscopy room. This department has tremendous talents and 43 physicians. The annual operation volume is over 10,000 including nearly 90 percent thoracoscopic minimally invasive surgery and more than 350 Da Vinci robotic surgeries.

Since the establishment, it has held 48 sessions of national cardiothoracic surgery workshop and trained a large number of talents for thoracic surgery in China. Every year, it undertakes many national training tasks of post-graduate education program and teaching tasks of higher education institutions, such as “Multiple Disciplinary Team” and “the progress of chest surgery.” It also sets up the enrollment site for post-doctoral program.