I came to a beautiful place for the first time, hoping to be enlightened.

My visit has the following reason. I have been focusing on the treatment of spine surgery after I graduated with a doctorate degree in 2007, but after a long time, I wondered how could I  improve my competence further, because the development of minimally invasive techniques and materials is changing everyday. Minimally invasive treatment of orthopedic diseases remains challenging. Only through constant learning and improvement could we provide more effective treatments for patients.

Last year, prof. Mayer came to Shantou for academic exchange, and during the exchange, I got short contact with him. At that time, I was already impressed by his academic attainments. Therefore, I decided to go to Schoen Klinik Munich Harlaching for further study. I made up my mind and was also supported by my hospital leaders and colleagues in orthopedics department. So, the learning trip was prepared immediately!

On the day before the departure, I did a disc herniation operation. My director said that it would be a farewell for me. However, it was not the last operation. Since the flight to Germany was departing at night, another operation was performed in the morning of that day. The patient was an middle-aged woman and the operation was very successful. In the afternoon, I had no work in the ward and went home early to make the final preparation before the departure.

Munich, hello! Harlaching, hello!

I arrived at the airport three hours in advance, took the boarding pass and checked-in smoothly.

According to the itinerary, the plane has to fly for 12 hours to Munich. I was not sure whether it was a psychological problem, when I sat on the plane, I felt sore. Every time I flew, I would keep adjusting the sitting posture throughout the trip, and I was sleepless.

I arrived in Munich in the early morning, went to the residence for a short break and went to see prof. Mayer. Because I had prepared in advance, everything including registration, signing of the confidentiality agreement and meeting with prof. Mayer went well.

Later, a young German doctor took me to get to know the hospital’s layout and daily work flow. The most amazing thing was that although prof. Mayer is a world-renowned spine master, his enthusiasm and approachability made me feel easy and dispelled my confusion and uneasiness in this strange environment.

Since I entered the operating room for the first time, the deepest feeling is that advancedness and accuracy could be seen everywhere. The sterility concept of the operating room was very strict. If anyone went to the bathroom or the dressing room in the interval of operation, before returning to the operating room, it was necessary to change the surgical gown, cap and mask. The 720-degree spiral narrow staircase from the locker room to the operating room kept the sterility of the surgical area to the greatest extent.

A great idea begins from simple things.

The spine surgery department had four fixed operating rooms with three anesthesia preparation rooms and resuscitating rooms. Every operating room was equipped with a separate C-arm, microscope and power system.

There were about 20 operations per day in the spine surgery operating rooms. You could walk around these four operating rooms to watch the surgeries and operations you were interested in.

I have watched several operations, the operation connection was very smooth, and operations of the spine surgery department ended mostly at three to four in the afternoon. Patients' recovery was also very fast after the operation. Basically, the patients were very awake 5-10 minutes after the end of the operation and returned to the ward.

The cooperation between anesthesiologists, surgeons and nurses was seamless. During operations, there was no unnecessary time delay. I always saw cooperation and prejudgment with mutual understanding...

In the operating room, every surgeon who saw fellows like us  entering the room, would greet us, introduce the operation condition and plan. When I asked them questions, they would answer me and even explain their confusion or discussion about different opinions, what I felt was equality and respect.

There was a doctor in the anesthesiology department called GAO Xuan, and he was a Chinese. He was highly skilled. After he heard that a Chinese came, he came to greet me. I was very touched.

Feel and spread the qualities of the top orthopedic hospital in Germany

I asked a colleague of Schoen Klinik Munich Harlaching hospital, what kind of visiting scholars does the hospital want to receive?

He said that the scholar should be good at communication and have sufficient professional knowledge. But the most important thing was to love your profession and to appreciate the hospital’s spirit of "achieving the ultimate level of minimally invasive surgery."

Every country and every hospital has its own qualities and positioning. In short, Schoen Klinik Munich Harlaching Hospital is a pioneer in minimally invasive surgery.

I could feel the following advantages of Schoen Klinik Munich Harlaching more and more strongly:

1. The unremitting pursuit of safety: Every step of checking and operation was done cautiously.

2. Pay more attention to patients’ psychological feelings: Here, I could feel “to relieve often, to comfort always" deeply. The hospital's environment was also excellent.

3. Minimally invasive is the mainstream: prof. Mayer invented the famous Mini-ALIF technique, it is no exaggeration to say that without prof. Mayer, Schoen Klinik Munich Harlaching could not have been what it is today. He is also one of the founders of the ISASS - The International Society for the Advancement of Spine Surgery and Director of FIFA Medical Center of Excellence since 2007. Minimally invasive surgery is the mainstream of the hospital. Their understanding of minimally invasive technique is also deeper.

At the time of registration, I have signed something like a notification, which stated clearly that it was not allowed to take photos of any information about patients or doctors in the department or the operating room. Therefore, sorry that this sharing of the German trip could not provide any specific case data, intraoperative photos or other data. I hope you could understand.

If you are interested in my story, you could contact me. I am willing to share all I know with you .

A small name card of Sch?n Klinik München Harlaching

Sch?n Klinik München Harlaching has been established for 104 years. The hospital group has 17 branch hospitals. Sch?n Klinik München Harlaching is one of the branches of the Sch?n Klinik Group. It is a high-level orthopedic hospital located in a place with beautiful landscape. It receives patients including important governmental persons like Gorbachev and a number of sports stars. The group has more than 10,000 employees and receives 300,000 patients every year, providing international patient services.

Introduction of the Author

Orthopedics Department, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College

Medical Doctor, Chief Surgeon, Supervisor for Master

He graduated from the Medical College of Shantou University in 2000. He has been working on clinical work of orthopedics since the graduation. In the same year, he was admitted to the Orthopedics Department, Medical College, Shantou University. In 2003, he obtained a master's degree and started his doctoral study at Shantou University Medical College. From May 2005 to November 2006, he was a visiting scholar at the Institute of Orthopaedics, the University of Western Australia. He participates in researches of key projects of the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, leading two projects of this foundation and one project of university doctoral foundation.

He has published more than 20 papers, including 13 papers in SCI.

Specialization: minimally invasive spine surgery

Text and photo by YAO Guanfeng

Edited by: Gloryren