On the afternoon of January 15, 2022, the Sino-German Video Conference on Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery was successfully held by Nanfang Hospital Ganzhou and Prof. Michael Mayer, the Founding Director of Sch?n Klinik München Harlaching, Founding President of German Spine Society and Former President of EUROSPINE. Prof. Chen Rongchun, member of Hospital Administration Committee, Director of Spine Surgery Department served as the host in the conference. With Prof. Ruan Dike from Medical Department of Orthopedics, Sixth Medical Centre of PLA General Hospital gave a scientific lecture, Dr. Zhang Shufang, the Deputy Director of Spine Surgery Department and Dr. Wu Yaohong from Nanfang Hospital Ganzhou shared two difficult cases. Directors and representatives from 36 units of Spine Surgery Medical Union in southern Jiangxi Province all participated in this conference. And Prof. Wang Yingsong, Director of Department of Orthopedics, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University served as the interpreter.

In the beginning, both sides exchanged warm greetings through a video connection. Prof. Chen Rongchun, member of Hospital Administration Committee, Director of Spine Surgery Department, Nanfang Hospital Ganzhou expressed his warmest welcome and sincere greetings to Prof. Michael Mayer, the world-renowned Spine Surgeon and Prof. Ruan Dike from Medical Department of Orthopedics, Sixth Medical Centre of PLA General Hospital as well as all the participated guests. He said that this conference offered an opportunity to gather all these experts and scholars to discuss academic issues, which helps to open up new ideas for the development of Spine Surgery and bring better development opportunities for strengthening the treatment level and research of orthopedics in southern Jiangxi Province.

Prof. Chen Rongchun gave a welcome speech

Prof. Mayer attended the virtual conference and shared a lecture of Current Role and Perspectives of Unilateral Biportal Endoscopic (UBE) in Spine Surgery (BESS). He looked back to the transformation of Lumbar Decompression techniques from 1970 to 2020, which developed from open surgery, micro surgery, micro-endo surgery, full-endo surgery to endo-assisted surgery.

According to his introduction, the UBE means to observe through one approach with endoscopy and to operate from the other approach with instruments. It is not only less invasive than the one bigger approach, but also crucially gives more possibilities as it is so-called the "triangulation" techniques for surgery, which allows to perform more complex spine surgeries. There are many advantages of the UBE/BESS, such as with a wide range of indications, being less invasive, less pain, less blood loss, with a lower hospital stay and a low complication rate. And performing UBE/BESS ensures a better stability and the least spinal damage. In the future, the UBE technique is expected to revive laparoscopic spine surgery and retroperitoneal endoscopic spine surgery with the "triangulation" techniques. Prof. Mayer summarized that the UBE/BESS techniques could fill the gap between full-endoscopic and microscopic surgery, and have a great potential for fusion and reconstruction techniques.

Participants actively joined the discussion

Prof. Ruan Dike gave a presentation with a title of Intervertebral Disc Transplantation - from animal study to clinical trial, and shared his findings that the allograft disc can survive in long-term follow-up, nutrition could across the endplates by diffusion, grafted intervertebral disc still have metabolic activity, no adjacent disc disease is detected, Kenematics is satisfied in the long term post-operatively and the center of rotation of grafted intervertebral disc is similar to physiology.

Dr. Zhang Shufang shared a difficult case

Dr. Wu Yaohong shared a difficult case

At the end of the conference, Prof. Chen Rongchun expressed thankfulness to Prof. Mayer and Prof. Ruan Dike as well as participants from 36 units of Spine Surgery Medical Union in southern Jiangxi Province. He regarded this conference as a great success and a good opening of 2022, and looked forward to having more video conferences with experts from home and abroad. In addition, Prof. Chen Rongchun hoped that Prof. Mayer and his team could come to Nanfang Hospital Ganzhou together for deeper academic exchanges after the COVID-19 pandemic is under control.

Nanfang Hospital Ganzhou

Founded in July 1939, Nanfang Hospital Ganzhou (Ganzhou People's Hospital) is located in the central area of Ganzhou. The city enjoys a good reputation of Jiangnan Songcheng, the Cradle of the Hakka Chinese, Former Red Capital and the World's Capital of the Navel Oranges. Currently, with the layout of one hospital, two districts, Nanfang Hospital Ganzhou has integrated the functions of medical service, teaching, scientific research, health care and rehabilitation. What’s more, it is not only the Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, but also a regional medical centre supported by the government and the first grade-three-A comprehensive hospital in the third period of Jiangxi Province. Besides, it is a modern hospital with the largest scale, the strongest technical force, the best medical equipment as well as the most advanced concept of management and service in Ganzhou. Regarding the total business volume, visiting patients and comprehensive service capability, it is ranked the first in Ganzhou and the third in Jiangxi Province. Furthermore, it is the only grade-three-A comprehensive hospital of Jiangxi Province on the list of national top hundred prefecture-level hospitals, qualifying the JCI accreditation-the highest and most strict standard in the world. As the deputy chairman unit of the Local (Municipal) Hospital Branch of the China Hospital Association and the main committee unit of Jiangxi Provincial Hospital Association Local (Municipal) County Hospital Branch, it has established the leading status among all the prefecture-level hospitals in Jiangxi Province.

The hospital covers an area of 252,000 square meters and a floor area of 350,000 square meters. Equipped with over 3,500 employees and 3,600 authorized beds, it receives over 1.7 million outpatient and emergency visits, 116,000 inpatient discharges and performs more than 45,000 surgeries annually. It has won several honorary titles such as "Top 100 National People's Reassuring Demonstration Hospital", "National Management Innovation Hospital", "National Improvement Medical Service Demonstration Hospital", "National People-Satisfied Medical Institution", "National Outstanding Performance Group in Creating 'Safe Hospital' Activities", "People-Satisfied-Hospital in Jiangxi Province", "Advanced Unit of Health Science and Technology Innovation in Jiangxi Province", "Jiangxi Provincial Quality Service Unit", "The 14^th Session of Jiangxi Provincial Civilized Unit", "The First Session of Jiangxi Provincial Safety Hospital" and "Jiangxi Provincial People-Satisfied Medical Health Institute".

The Spine Surgery Department of Nanfang Hospital Ganzhou

As one of the ten renowned specialties of Nanfang Hospital Ganzhou, the Spine Surgery Department is the medical leading construction specialty in Jiangxi Province and the national MISS training base of the Osteoporosis Society of Chinese Geriatric(OSCG). Now it has become the leading spine surgery department not just in southern Jiangxi Province but the whole province. Over the years of experience, the Spine Surgery Department of Nanfang Hospital Ganzhou has formed a good collaboration with some hospitals such as the Third Hospital of Peking University, Shanghai Changzheng Hospital and West China Hospital of Sichuan University. In recent years, following the concept of strengthening specialty construction, developing sub-specialty, the Spine Surgery Department has been divided into 3 districts containing minimally invasive spine surgery district, district for cervical and lumbar diseases and for spine tumor plus deformed ankle, offering 133 authorized beds. The Spine Surgery Department has a total of 28 clinicians, among which are 3 chief physicians, 11 deputy chief physicians and 1 master supervisor, furthermore, most of them have master’s degree or doctor’s degree. The nursing team has 50 members, and most of them have further education in specialty nursing in some renowned hospitals in China such as the Third Hospital of Peking University and West China Hospital of Sichuan University. Over the years, the Spine Surgery Department has been keeping in pace with advanced technologies at home and abroad, gradually improving the quantity and quality of three and four-level operations. Apart from performing some routine decompression and fusion surgeries for spine degeneration or bone fracture, the Spine Surgery Department is at the forefront of its counterparts in Jiangxi Province in performing minimally invasive endoscopic decompression of the spine, microscopic fusion, microscopic lesion removal as well as all kinds of difficult surgeries like spinal deformity correction, total laminectomy for tumors and refractory spinal subluxation surgery. Nanfang Hospital Ganzhou has always been working on providing better medical services to the people in Jiangxi Province.