Perfect Diary for Prof. Freude's Visit to Dongguan Hospital of TCM

From October 16 to 20, an internationally renowned trauma expert, Prof. Thomas Freude, Head of the Orthopaedic and Traumatology University Clinic PMU Salzburg, Austria, and President-elect of the Austrian Society of Surgery 2025, conducted professorship activities in Dongguan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and engaged in a series of academic exchanges in the hospital, including outpatient consultation, ward round, surgical guidance, internal training in the department, discussion on department management, discussion on difficult cases, master open class, among others.

On Oct. 16th, Dongguan Hospital of TCM welcomed its fourth visiting professor, who is Prof. Freude from Salzburg University Hospital. With 99 beds for University Clinic for Orthopedics and Traumatology and 14 beds for Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery at the Hallein campus, 32,850 outpatients per year, 5,474 inpatients, 3,591 surgeries per year, and 45 doctors and 107 nurses, 15 to 20 critically injured patients are helicoptered in every day for emergency treatment in the department. Prof. Freude is also the Elected President of the Austrian Surgical Society, and he is German. It was on this day, October 16th, that the Sino-Euro Communication Center for Orthopedic Trauma was established in Dongguan Hospital of TCM. At noon on Oct. 17th, the Emergency Department of the Chinese hospital received a severely injured patient who was subjected to a car accident and suffered from multiple trauma all over the body. Director LIANG Haobiao of the Trauma Department and Prof. Freude, together with other experts in anaesthesia, intervention, gynaecology and general surgery, consulted for this emergent case in the ICU and the OR to discuss the major and primary rescue of the patient. Prof. Freude shared his wealth of experience on the rescue and treatment of multiple traumas with Director LIANG, who firstly put an external fixator on the patient's pelvis, so that the patient's vital signs were stabilised. Prof. Freude remarked that it was a great honor to avail himself of this opportunity and observe the level of emergency and trauma care at Dongguan Hospital of TCM. Director LIANG, the interventionalists, as well as the directors of other disciplines, all highly valued these severely injured patients, and also demonstrated a high standard of treatment, which made him feel that this exchange was very rewarding. In the afternoon of Oct. 21st, Prof. Freude paid a visit to the Gloryren's office in downtown Guangzhou and marvelled at the significance of Gloryren's work to the development of China's medical services as a whole, as well as the national strategy of cultivating excellent doctors in China. We also showed him that there are so many colleagues working together behind this endeavor. He holds that there are 1.4 billion people in China, whether they are rich or poor, whether they live in the city or in the countryside, and it is the conscience of a nation that every seriously injured person should be given good medical treatment. He came to China for the first time, and this time he came to Hong Kong, Dongguan and Guangzhou, which made him feel that China is indeed the world's leading country. It is precisely because of Gloryren that Chinese and Western hospitals and doctors can really mutually understand each other, help each other and make progress together, so that all difficulties can be resolved.

Establishment of the Sino-Euro Communication Center for Orthopedic Trauma

In the morning of Oct. 16th, YE Guohua, Secretary of the Party Committee of Dongguan Hospital of TCM, DENG Weijun, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and President of Dongguan Hospital of TCM, LU Guoliang, Director of the Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, LIANG Haobiao, Director of Orthopaedic and Traumatology, and his team extended their warmest welcome to Prof. Freude. Together, they unveiled Sino-Euro Communication Center for Orthopedic Trauma in the conference room of the Hospital.

DENG Weijun, Deputy Secretary and President of the hospital, presented Prof. Freude with the Letter of Appointment as a Visiting Professor to their hospital.

The welcoming ceremony was hosted by FANG Zhike, Head of the Department of Science and Education, and LU Guoliang, Director of the Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, introduced the development of his department.

YE Guohua, Secretary of the Party Committee of the hospital, in his speech, welcomed Prof. Freude's visit and expressed his expectations to this academic exchange. He expressed his hope that all the colleagues would value this exchange and actively engage in it. He also indicated that Director LIANG Haobiao would have in-depth exchanges with Prof. Freude on the construction of the Traumatology Department of the hospital and discuss the future development of the department, so that the department could further improve its strengths in clinical diagnosis and treatment and scientific research, which would help to bring the construction of the Department of Traumatology to a new level.

Getting to Know about the Time-honored Chinese Medicine Practice in the Hospital

Afterwards, Director LIANG Haobiao, the academic leader of Trauma Department, showed Prof. Freude around the Hall of Chinese Medicine in the hospital, and introduced the history of bone-setting practice in Dongguan Hospital of TCM, the integration and development of TCM and Western medicine in the hospital, so that Prof. Freude could experience the profundity of the TCM practice in the region.

Difficult Case Discussion

In the afternoon of Oct. 16th, Prof. Freude, Director LIANG and his team members discussed difficult cases in the office of Orthopaedic Ward V. During the discussion, when they discussed a case involving fracture of the lateral side of the proximal femur caused by long-term use of anti-osteoporosis drugs, Prof. Freude reminded colleagues in accordance with his wealth of clinical experience that when the image showed bumps on the lateral side of the proximal femur, combined with the history of long-term use of anti-osteoporosis drugs, it could be a warning of a fracture.

Multidisciplinary Consultation for the Treatment of Severely Injured Patient 

At noon on Oct. 17th, while Prof. Freude and Director LIANG were consulting outpatients, the Emergency Department of the hospital received a multi-trauma patient from a car accident. Director LIANG, together with Prof. Freude, and specialists from intervention and anaesthesia, gynaecology, and general surgery department, met in the ICU and the OR to discuss possible treatment for this patient.

Prof. Freude shared his extensive experience in treating multi-trauma patients with Director LIANG. Director LIANG first helped to fixed the patient's pelvis with an external fixor and the following multidisciplinary treatment gradually stabilised the patient's vital signs and Prof. Freude remarked that it was a great honor to avail himself of this opportunity and observe the level of emergency and trauma care at Dongguan Hospital of TCM. Director LIANG, the interventionalists, as well as the directors of other disciplines, all highly valued these severely injured patients, and also demonstrated a high standard of treatment, which made him feel that this exchange was very rewarding.

Sharing New Treatment Options during Case Discussions

In the morning of Oct. 18, Prof. Freude and Director LIANG visited the ICU patient admitted yesterday and discussed the treatment plan after the patient's vital signs have stabilised.

Prof. Freude and Director LIANG's team then discussed difficult cases and the surgical plan for the patient who would be operated on Thursday afternoon of the week. Director LIANG introduced a acetabular fracture patient that failed to be treated timely and he also prepared a 3D-printed pelvis and mirrored model of the healthy side of the pelvis to discuss with Prof. Freude about surgical approach, removal of the scar tissues, and reduction of the bone fragments. They shared with each other of how to treat these types of cases in Chinese, German and Austrian ways and came up with possible surgical plan for this patient.

Surgical instruction and delivery of surgical skills

In the morning of Oct 19, Prof. Freude shared a lecture and case discussion on Pelvic Fracture, Acetabular Fracture, Intercondylar Fracture of Humerus, Tibial Plateau Fracture with Director LIANG's team, and shared with the colleagues of how to reveal the posterior part of the tibial plateau without fibular osteotomy.

Prof. Freude pointed out that for posterior tibial plateau fracture, when the reduction was performed in lateral approach, osteotomy of the femur could better expose the tibial plateau and realize reduction.

Surgical Guidance for the Chinese Colleagues

In the afternoon, Director LIANG adopted the lateral rectus abdominis approach to treat the patient they discussed in the afternoon of Oct. 18. Prof. Freude offered surgical guidance during the surgery. It was a difficult surgery, but Director LIANG's surgical skills and rich experience, and smooth teamwork in the OR realized satisfactory reduction for the patient.

Sino-German Ortho Trauma Master Open Class and Dongguan Regional Ortho Trauma Diagnosis and Treatment Seminar

In the morning of Oct. 20th, Prof. Freude and Director LIANG's team discussed difficult cases and together they explored diagnosis and treatment options for the difficult cases.

Subsequently, Prof. Freude provided surgical guidance on a terrible triad case performed by Director WU Jianglin of the Hand Surgery Dept. Prof. Freude mentioned that the key to treating the terrible triad case is the repair of the medial collateral ligament of the elbow joint, otherwise there might be subsequent osteoarthritis in the radial head due to insufficient support from the medial collateral ligament.

In the afternoon, the Sino-German Ortho Trauma Master Open Class and Dongguan Regional Ortho Trauma Diagnosis and Treatment Seminar was grandly opened in the Hall of Chinese Medicine in the hospital. During the seminar, Prof. Freude delivered lectures on tibial plateau fracture and pelvic fracture approaches and shared his years of surgical experience in related topics with the Chinese colleagues, which benefited the attendees greatly.

Subsequently, the Ortho Trauma Directors from other regional hospitals also shared their cases and had relevant discussions with Prof. Freude and other specialists.

The diagnosis and treatment concepts of complicated fractures of major joints were probed into in the seminar, and all the experts from regional hospitals of Dongguan brought collision and progress to the diagnosis and treatment of ortho trauma diseases in Dongguan region, and this seminar also drew a successful conclusion to Prof. Freude's visit to Dongguan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.