At the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons (SLS) held recently in New York, our Department of Thoracic Surgery gave wonderful presentations on minimally invasive surgery cases, marking a new height in our MIS skills.

Since 2009, led by Director Li Danqing, our Thoracic Surgery, by dividing the department into smaller groups according to doctors’ expertise, extended the application of thoracoscopic MIS from benign to malignant cases, from simple pneumothorax to the cure of lung cancer. In a study of sub-lobar resection at early-stage which ended last year and sponsored by Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission, our Thoracic Surgery became the center of largest number of anatomic segmentectomy in the group. Other cases, including three incisions for curing esophageal carcinoma, double side MG thymectomy, single incision for curing lung cancer, laparoscopic Nissen and Toupet were all reported at annual meetings of Chinese Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Chinese Medical Association.

Based on that, Director Li encouraged the department to set their eyes on international academic conferences. He pointed out that, we should focus more on surgical skills and plans at which we are good, and use our hands to make up for the gap in devices. At the just concluded SLS2018, which was attended by 407 doctors from 41 countries and regions, Xu Xiaohui from our Thoracic Surgery was invited to give a report on “Transgastric Resection of Paracardial GIST”. His presentation was widely acclaimed and many international colleagues expressed the wish to visit PUMCH.