Review: German Spine Master in Jiangmen Treating Overseas Chinese with High Quality

Head of Orthopedic Department II of the People’s Hospital of Jiangmen Yizhong Lin introduced, after the setting up of Sino-German Communication Center for Spine, the German spine professor would come to The People’s Hospital of Jiangmen twice per year for academic communication, to strengthen bilateral cooperation, to improve medical level of the hospital and to offer more convenience for overseas Chinese.

Only a real spine master can be called a robot.

Before the unveiling ceremony, President Xiaochun Liao, Vice-President Weidong He and Head of Orthopedic Department Yizhong Lin held a welcome ceremony for Prof. Rosenthal.

After a simple welcome ceremony, they started their communication on procedure optimization and the application of orthopedic robots, etc.

Prof. Rosenthal told us, 20 years ago, Germans had stopped using robots to do surgeries because robots would have many problems in the process. The preparation of surgeries by robots is so complicated that it spends a lot of time in programming. In the process of procedure, it may occurs many urgent accidents because surgeries by robots have a lot of variables. He told us only a real spine master would be a robot.

Prof. Rosenthal showed that apart from paying a academic visit to the People’s Hospital of Jiangmen, he would take part in the surgeries and go to outpatient clinic, etc. He would make use of his experience to help this hospital to improve their work procedure and efficiency.

Conspicuous Results of Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery

On March 26^th , Prof. Rosenthal finished two procedures in the People’s Hospital of Jiangmen. The first one was a cervical surgery by Prof. Rosenthal as a primary surgeon. The second one was a lumbar surgery which was charged by Director Lin with Prof. Rosenthal assisting besides. Both of these two surgeries were great successes.

Before being hospitalized, Mr. Li, 73 years old, had to stoop when walking around, and needed to sit for a rest after walking 300-400 meters. Osphyalgia and mobility limitation had troubled him for six years. In 2017, Mr. Li was diagnosed with lumbar disc herniation. He said he didn’t dare to go through surgery because it would have large risk. Knowing that there would be a German professor to the People’s Hospital of Jiangmen to guide procedures, Mr. Li decided to reserve a surgery. Few hours after procedure, Mr. Li could walk around normally.

“With the guidance of the German professor, cooperating with the professional knowledge of the orthopedic team of this hospital, my surgery was so successful that I can walk normally now.” Mr. Li said with a big smile.

Thanks to Professor Rosenthal and the orthopedic team of the People’s Hosital of Jiangmen, the result of this surgery was conspicuous.

Last September, with the guidance of Prof. Rosenthal, the Orthopedic Department had completed at least 10 minimally invasive surgeries with microscope or  transforaminal endoscope, with which all patients were in positive situations of recovery.

Prof. Rosenthal thought that minimally invasive surgeries should not only pursue small incision, but also try doctors’ best to reduce the injury of spine cord and nerve. In the meanwhile, it should make sure that the patient could recover as soon as possible. Only satisfying these conditions, the surgery can be called as minimally invasive surgery.

In the past, patients after spine surgery needed to take a rest in beds for one to two weeks, even for a month. At present, patients could leave the bed and walk around after the operation, and be discharged after three to four days. “The operation result has surpass our imagination. It has benefited to the patient a lot.” Director of Orthopedic Departmrnt II Yizhong Lin said.

Sharing Innovative Techniques and Improving Surgery

"In addition to the extension of minimally invasive techniques, Prof. Rosenthal's arrival this time also brought two innovative technologies: one was minimally invasive surgery with anterior approach to cervial vertebrae for decompression(fusion with Cage), which was used for the treatment of most cervical spondylosis; the other one was the innovative approach of lumbar spine surgery, which makes the operation easier. All these will greatly improve the technical level of spine surgery in our department. " Yizhong Lin said.

The traditional surgery in cervical spine  needs to use a steel plate to fix the cervical spine. But nowadays, the surgery in cervical spine only needs a 4cm incision, removing the intervertebral disc which oppresses the nerve and then fix it. The method is very simple. After surgery, the patient does not need to wear a neck band or neck traction collar.

The 81-year-old Mr. Zhang has experienced the CAGE fusion. On the first day after operation, Mr. Zhang was walking in the ward with a bandage wrapped around his neck wound. He said he could not move his body before surgery, but he could move freely after the operation, showing a good result.

Set priority for specialty development & Solve disease problems for elderly patients

The department of orthopaedics surgery of the Jiangmen People’s Hospital is one of the first key clinical specialties in Jiangmen and also the "Osteoporosis Diagnosis and Treatment Technical Cooperation Base" of the Provincial Health and Planning Commission.

“Currently, there are more and more elderly patients with spinal diseases and the proportion of elderly spine surgery is as high as 70%. How to help more elderly patients to solve disease problems is the focus of our specialist development.” Yizhong Lin said.

Senile patients with spinal diseases often have a wide range of lesions and surgery with high risk. It is often a dilemma for the surgeons to choose conservative treatments or operations.

In this regard, Prof. Rosenthal proposed the concept of "targeted treatment", which means the surgery can be small and refined without solving all the lesions, but only the most important problems. Based on the guidance of this concept, the orthopedic surgery of elderly patients in Jiangmen People’s Hospital is no longer a "restricted area".

Yizhong Lin said that with the advanced concept proposed by Prof. Rosenthal, the Department of Orthopaedics Surgery will start from two aspects of minimally invasive surgery, making the operation small and delicate, establishing more perfect diagnosis and treatment standards and promote the development of specialties.

Procedure Optimization Leading to Great Promotion of Spine Surgery

Under the guidance of Prof. Rosenthal, the Department of Orthopedic Surgery of Jiangmen People's Hospital completed ten operations for four consecutive mornings. At the highest efficiency, four operations were completed in half a day. Compared with previous surgeries, the efficiency was doubled. “The improvement in efficiency is due to the shortening of the operation time and the optimization of the process.” Yizhong Lin said.

Prof. Rosenthal and the team under Director Yizhong Lin analyzed cases and made  surgical plans.

For patients with spinal diseases, the Orthopedic Department of the People’s Hospital of Jiangmen used to adopt the method of open surgery and the operation time should be at least 2 hours. Today, the minimally invasive surgery guided by Prof. Rosenthal reduces the operation time to about one hour, which saves a lot of time.

“Now the next patient can be prepared in the operating room.”

When the surgery got after the middle, Prof. Rosenthal asked the Anesthesia Department to prepare the next patient in advance, including anesthesia, disinfection, and positioning. By doing this, after the former operation, the surgeon can directly go to the next operating room and operate on the next patient, which is tightly connected.

“Doctors needed to wait for half an hour or one hour to the next surgery before. However, with the guidance of Prof. Rosenthal, the process of procedure has been optimized so that the efficiency has been improved greatly.” Zhongyi Lin said, “There is a high demand for the management of Anesthesia Department, involving the anesthesia and palinesthesia of the patients, so only accurate time can realize a perfect surgery.

The two surgeries were very tightly connected which have higher demands for the surgeon. In this regard, Yizhong Lin said that all surgeons need sufficient physical strength, flexible mind, and smart hands.

Only with sufficient physical strength, can keep doing many surgeries.

Only with flexible mind, can settle the problem flexibly and fast.

Only with smart hands, can make things fast, accurate and perfect.

Prof. Rosenthal has provided a lot of valuable experience in the management of operating rooms. Xiaochun Liao, President of the People’s Hospital of Jiangmen, said that the next step was to optimize the management of operating rooms and improve work efficiency.

Master Open Class

On the afternoon of March 29th, Prof. Rosenthal held an international open class of spine surgery in the People’s Hospital of Jiangmen, explaining the latest global concept of minimally invasive spine surgery. Spine doctors from different hospitals in Jiangmen actively participated in the event.

In the open class, Prof. Rosenthal explained the treatment method and technique of thoracic disc herniation in a simple way and doctors actively participated in the discussion. The academic atmosphere was very intensive.

The 8th Lingnan Spinal Minimally Invasive International Innovation Forum

Prof. Daniel J. Rosenthal

Prof. Daniel J. Rosenthal from Hochtaunus Kliniken gGmbH in Germany introduced the importance of the location of pedicle screw in spine surgery from aspects of aiming, guiding, preoperative planning and decision-making during operation. He pointed out that minimally invasive spine surgery was designed to reduce surgical injury, not just the size of the incision. Precise targeted surgery with the aid of navigation can effectively reduce surgical complications and ensure surgical efficacy.

Director Yizhong Lin talked about the significance of this academic exchange.

“Every visit of the Prof. Daniel Rosenthal brings targeted new technologies and new ideas based on the situations and needs of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery in our hospital. This is conducive to improving the technical level and specialty construction of our hospital.” Yizhong Lin said. In last September, under the guidance of Prof. Daniel Rosenthal, the Department of Spine Surgery successfully carried out minimally invasive spinal techniques. Since then, the number of spinal surgery patients in the department has increased in multiples. Lin also said: “Previously, in some difficult spinal surgery cases, we didn't dare to do or couldn't do the surgery so that patients had to go to provincial hospitals. Now we have more technology which is good for patients and able to solve their problems locally without seeking medical treatment everywhere.”