From March 11th, 2024 to March 16th, 2024, Prof. Christoph Mehren, Deputy Medical Director of Schoen Klinik Muenchen Harlaching and Head of Spine Center and Back Institute Munich, visited Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital as an international visiting professor, and carried out a series of academic exchange activities, including outpatient consultations, ward rounds, surgical guidance, surgical practice, internal lectures, discussions on department management and complex cases, and public lectures, etc.

Highlights

Opening Ceremony for "Sino-German Communication Center for Spine Surgery"

On March 11th, the opening ceremony for "Sino-German Communication Center for Spine Surgery" at Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital was held at the Longhai Campus. More than 200 attendees, including Prof. Mehren, spine expert from Schoen Klinik Muenchen Harlaching of Germany, Mr. WANG Binggui, member of the Party Group and researcher of Level II of Zhengzhou Municipal Health Commission, Prof. GAO Yanzheng, Chairman of the Committee of Henan Provincial Orthopedics Association and Director of Spine Surgery Department of Henan Provincial People's Hospital, all the executives of Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital including Prof. MEI Wei, well-known doctor in Central China and Secretary of Party Committee of the hospital, Mr. HU Ming, Deputy Secretary of Party Committee and President of the Labor Union of the hospital, and directors and head nurses of clinical departments gathered at the ceremony. Vice President WANG Yingqiu of Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital served as the moderator.

Prof. MEI Wei, Secretary of Party Committee of Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital, first delivered a welcome speech, saying that the hospital always attaches great importance to specialty development and construction and has invited internationally known experts to online academic activities for several times. The hospital has already founded the "Sino-German Communication Center for Orthopedic Trauma" which keeps bringing the relative specialties to international standard. This time, the "Sino-German Communication Center for Spine Surgery" will serve as a platform for the demonstration and discussion of advanced spine surgery treatment techniques and concepts of the hospital, as well as for the collision and integration from academic exchanges between China and Germany. Therefore, he hoped that young doctors could seize this opportunity to develop spine surgery of the whole Henan Province and provide better medical services for the vast number of patients with spinal diseases.

At the ceremony, Mr. WANG Binggui, member of the Party Group and researcher of Level II of Zhengzhou Municipal Health Commission, Prof. Mehren, Prof. GAO Yanzheng, Chairman of the Committee of Henan Provincial Orthopedics Association and Director of Spine Surgery Department of Henan Provincial People's Hospital, and Prof. MEI Wei, Secretary of Party Committee of Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital jointly moderated the inauguration for the "Sino-German Communication Center for Spine Surgery".

Secretary MEI Wei issued a letter-of-appointment of visiting professor to Prof. Mehren.

Vice President WANG Yingqiu moderated the ceremony

Prof. Mehren gave an introduction to Schoen Klinik Muenchen Harlaching and its Spine Center. During this academic exchange week, he looked forward to discussing with and learning from the Chinese colleagues. He would also share some German experience on spine surgery to jointly progress the development of spine surgery and orthopedics.

After the opening ceremony, led by the hospital's executives, Prof. Mehren visited the Longhai Campus and Yiju Health City Campus of the hospital, saw the patients, and had discussions on complex cases.

Visit departments

When talking about department construction, Prof. Mehren stated that close cooperation among and within departments is a must for the development of a department and a hospital, and is also an essential factor to provide standardized treatment for patients.

During the visit, Prof. Mehren was happy to see the great passion of all the medical staffs for medical work and close collaboration among departments.

Live Broadcast of Outpatient Consultation and Real-time Q&A from Experts

At 8:30 a.m. of March 12th, Prof. Mehren arrived at the outpatient clinic of Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital to provide outpatients with free-of-charge consultation and suggestions with Doctor LI Xiaoteng from the Spine Surgery Department for a day. The expert consultation attracted Henan Traffic Radio's attention and was broadcast to popularize medical knowledge and healthy concepts to the masses. The live broadcast attracted more than 10,000 online views in total.

Prof. Mehren and Doctor LI cooperated well and saw more than 20 patients during the day. Prof. Mehren carefully read every patient's radiological images, patiently asked their complaints, and gave them detailed treatment advice.

On the broadcast, Prof. Mehren also introduced the formation and treatments of scoliosis, how to improve scoliosis in daily life, and rich knowledge about other spinal deformities.

Meanwhile, Prof. Mehren mentioned the reasons why more young people are diagnosed with scoliosis. The foremost one is their sedentary lifestyle, and the second is the development of modern diagnostic technology which facilitates early diagnosis and early treatment for scoliosis and other spinal diseases. As for how to slow down the progress of spinal diseases in daily life, Prof. Mehren suggested patients to exercise more and keep a healthy lifestyle, which is also an advice for all the young people.

On March 13th and 14th, Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital held "Academic Salon on Key and Complex Cases of Spine Surgery" and "Sino-German Microscopic Spinal Surgery Technique Training Course" respectively. Tens of orthopedics specialists in Henan Province attended and gave lectures. They shared their years of clinical experience without reservation and illustrated possible problems during clinical work with cases to help the young doctors refine their surgical techniques and improve the quality and safety of medical services for patients.

Academic Salon on Key and Complex Cases of Spine Surgery

On the academic salon, Prof. Mehren actively participated in discussions on surgical complications, such as dural tear and bone cement leakage, adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, sagittal balance of the spine, spinal revision surgeries, and so on. When sharing cases, Prof. Mehren encouraged young surgeons to share their thoughts, listened to them carefully, and explained how to choose the optimal surgical plans.

At last, Prof. Mehren concluded that it's not black and white when spine surgeons decide treatment plans and surgical approaches for patients. They have to customize a treatment plan for every patient based on the patient's condition and the surgeon's technique so as to provide the best treatment.

Sino-German Microscopic Spinal Surgery Technique Training Course

On March 14th, the Microscopic Spinal Surgery Technique Training Course of the First Sino-German Academic Exchange Week was held as scheduled. Prof. Mehren and 16 orthopedic specialists of Henan Province respectively from Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital, Luoyang Orthopedic-Traumatological Hospital of Henan Province (Henan Provincial Orthopedics Hospital), the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Henan Provincial People's Hospital, etc. were specially invited to give lectures. More than 200 spine surgeons from hospitals in Henan attended the course.

Before the course, Prof. MEI Wei, Secretary of Party Committee of Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital, conveyed his warm welcome to Prof. Mehren and all the Henan spine surgery specialists present.

Secretary MEI stated that minimally invasive surgery, precision surgery, and AI-assisted surgery are important features of modern surgical departments as well as the developmental trend of spine surgery. He hoped that the attendees could learn from foreign advanced techniques and experience, enhance academic exchanges, and broaden their views during this course so as to improve spine surgery of Henan Province and provide high-quality medical services for patients with spinal diseases.

After the opening speech, Prof. Mehren shared a lecture titled The interlaminar microsurgical approach for the treatment of lumbar disc herniations - Tips and Tricks for the treatment of recurrent disc herniations, introducing an algorithm of choosing surgical approaches for recurrent disc herniation. If the patient's chief complaint is leg pain or radiculopathy and has no significant segmental instability, Prof. Mehren would suggest to perform a sequestrectomy or discectomy. If the patient shows segmental instability in the spine or mainly complains about coexisting backpain, a spinal fusion surgery or total disc replacement would be recommended.

Prof. Mehren also summarized the indications, advantages of microscopic surgery for disc herniation and how to choose the proper approach from fusion surgery and microscopic surgery.

In the afternoon, Prof. Mehren delivered another lecture on Non-Fusion Treatment in Case of Cervical Radiculopathy (TDR and Posterior Foraminotomy), explaining the reasons for choosing different surgical approaches based on their indications and contradictions.

During the lecture, Prof. Mehren mainly introduced the advantages and tricks of total disc replacement (TDR). He specially pointed out that TDR has many contradictions, so multiple factors like the location of pathology should be taken into full consideration when choosing approaches. Besides, the combination of fusion surgery and non-fusion surgery can also be a choice.

Finally, the Microscopic Spinal Surgery Technique Training Course came to a successful end. All the attendees were satisfied about the rich knowledge of the course and learned a lot from the two lectures of Prof. Mehren.

Sino-German Global Webcast on Microscopic Spine Surgery

In the morning of March 15th, Sino-German Global Webcast on Microscopic Spine Surgery went successfully at Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital. The surgery was a C6 microscopic anterior cervical corpectomy and fusion (ACCF) with a C4/5 anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF), and was jointly performed by Prof. Mehren, Secretary MEI Wei, and Director WANG Qingde of Spine Surgery Department. As a platform of learning and academic exchanges for spine surgeons, this global surgery webcast attracted plenty of spine surgeons to watch online, contributing to a real-time view up to 56,800.

First, Secretary MEI made an incision and exposed the planned spinal segments. Then Director WANG Qingde and Prof. Mehren performed the rest of the surgery with a microscope.

During the surgery, they found a serious adhesion between posterior longitudinal ligament (PLL) and dura of the patient's cervical spine which caused technical difficulties. But Director WANG successfully completed the surgery by separating and removing the tissues layer by layer carefully, resecting the discs, and fusing the segments with a cage and plate. Prof. Mehren spoke highly of Prof. WANG's precise technique that enabled him to finish the surgery successfully despite the unexpected problems.

During the surgery broadcast, the moderator at the conference hall and spine surgeons online raised questions to Prof. Mehren and Director WANG about the tips of posterior longitudinal ligament resection, prevention and solution of dural tear, necessity of intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring system, etc. The two experts both answered the questions in detail.

Summary Meeting of Sino-German Academic Exchange Week

On March 16th, the summary meeting of the First Sino-German Academic Exchange Week at Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital was held at the Longhai Campus. The meeting was attended by Prof. Mehren, Vice President WANG Yingqiu, Director WANG Qingde of Spine Surgery Department I, Director YANG Yong of Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery Department, Director ZHANG Hua of Spine Surgery Department II, Director WANG Xiangshan of Spine Surgery Department III, Director SUN Yibao of Spine Surgery Department at Yiju Health City Campus, Director ZHAO Xianling of Scientific Research and Education Department, etc. and moderated by Director WANG Qingde.

On the meeting, Prof. Mehren shared the experience of the Spine Center of Schoen Klinik Muenchen Harlaching on specialty construction, introducing his hospital's administrative team and the Spine Center's department structure, treatment spectrum, follow-up, patients' satisfaction survey, and so on. Prof. Mehren illustrated that hospitals should form a virtuous circle of hospital management and specialty construction: if a hospital could provide high-quality medical services, patients can be satisfied, which will improve the hospital's reputation and attract more patients. As the hospital earns more profits, it can allocate more budgets to improve the medical service. It is with this virtuous circle that Schoen Klinik Muenchen Harlaching and its Spine Center are able to develop to what they are now, and that the hospital can become one of the most prominent orthopedic hospitals in Germany and even the world.

In the summary speech, Prof. Mehren spoke highly of Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital. The hospital has a huge number of patients and internationally advanced medical techniques to perform highly demanding surgeries. Its Yiju Health City Campus is fully equipped, providing a good environment for patients. The endoscopic techniques, electronic medical record system, etc. are even more advanced than some orthopedic hospitals in Germany. He was happy to see the friendliness and enthusiasm for patients and patient-oriented concept of the hospital. And he hoped that both Schoen Klinik Muenchen Harlaching and Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital could continuously enhance the specialty construction, refine their techniques, and improve patients' treatment outcome.

In the concluding remark, Vice President WANG Yingqiu thanked Prof. Mehren for his participation in one-week academic exchanges and his suggestions and insights on hospital management, specialty construction and department structure, and said that the hospital will refer to Prof. Mehren's advice and experience. During the one-week Sino-German medical academic exchange activity, there are wonderful academic exchanges with collisions of thoughts and burst of passion. As the activity ended, Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital will keep enhancing academic exchanges among domestic and foreign experts and refine the expertise to benefit more patients. Meanwhile, the hospital encourages more experts and young surgeons to join the activities to progress together and develop orthopedics in Henan Province to the next level.