Respiratory Medicine
【Beginnings and development of the Pulmonary Department 】
The Pulmonary Department was established in 1956. There were only 22 beds for clinical use at the very beginning. The new building of intern medicine was built in 1984, and then the department of respiratory was formally establishedwith 24 beds for common respiratory diseases and 6 beds for tuberculosis. In 1987,the department was divided into two departments, the normal respiratory and the elderly respiratory. The bronchoscope room was established in 1982. The pulmonary function testing was carried out in 1987, which belonged to the medical technology department. It was incorporated into the pulmonarydepartment’s management in 1995.The respiratory intensive care unit was established in 1993, which was expanded to a complete critical care medicine unit in February 2000. After decades of development, the current department of pulmonaryhas served as a comprehensive divisionwith patient care, education and research.
【Disciplinegroup 】
There are 43 nurses, 20 clinicians , 2 respiratory therapists and 1 clinical pharmacistin the department. In the nurse staff , there are 13senior postgraduates and 30 junior postgraduates. In the clinician group team, there are 20 faculty and fellows, including 2 with MD degree, 6 with master degree and 12 postgraduates.
Chief of department: Yue-jian Liu, Chief Physician, Postgraduate Tutor
Yue-jian Liu,the head of thedepartment, postgraduate tutor of Sichuan Medical University and North Sichuan Medical University, is one of the famous experts of pulmonary disease area in Sichuan province. He has held a variety of academic posts such as committee member of China physicians association respiratory doctors association, Medical Association of Chronic non-Communicable Diseases Prevention and Control inSichuan Province, and Sichuan Provincial Anti -tuberculosis Association deputy director of Sichuan Province Society of Respiratory diseases, and Sichuan Provincal TB expert advisory committee.He also undertakes the works like Member of Control Committee of experts on the prevention of chronic non-infectious diseases of Sichuan Province, Member of Chinese physicians association Respiratory Doctors Association.Member of National Public Health Emergency experts, and the editorial works for several academical journals asPractical Journal Of Clinical Medicine,Journal of the Chinese Medical Practice and Chinese Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
【Introduction of Routine Clinical Work】
The dept. introduced the mechanical ventilation technology from the mid-1960s. From then on, mechanical ventilation started to apply to the respiratory failure patients. And gradually, the emergency managements including tracheal intubation, tracheotomy, invasive ventilation, noninvasive ventilation and so on were implemented in critically ill patients. With a series of technology matures, mortality of respiratory failure patients is greatly reduced, at the same time the success rate of rescue and long-term survival in the emergency patients is greatly increased.
The department of respiratory medicine contains 4 medical units, which are General ward, respiratory intensive care unit, lung function examination room, and respiratory endoscopy room. There are 108 beds for clinical use, including 57 beds of Common ward in the based part of hospital, 32 beds of common ward in the Cao Tang branch hospital and 19 RICU beds . A large number of advanced equipments including the high-grade monitors (can monitor ECG blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation and CO2 partial pressure), the invasive mechanical ventilators, the noninvasive ventilators and the blood gas analyzer are available for the patients.
Pulmonary dept. serves as a regional referral center for both the inpatient and outpatient evaluation of a broad range of pulmonary disorders.
There are more than 30,000 outpatients and 2600 inpatients every year in the dep.And there aremore than 2,000 person-time of interventional examination and treatmentvia brochoscopy and more than 3000 person-time mechanical ventilation treatment annually . As diagnosis and treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary heart disease, we are in the advanced level in southwest China, and the same with the treatment of severe disease, especially focusing on respiratory disorders and critical illnesses (conditions such as shock, respiratory failure, and multiple organ failure). Our comprehensive clinics provide multidisciplinary care by dedicated teams to treat the full scope of lung and breathing issues.Respiratory examination room (laboratory) is comprised of two parts, one is endoscopy room and the other is lung function measurements room. Two full-time physicians are allocated to take the responsibility for the laboratory. The laboratory provides specialized examination for the clinical work and supports the platform for research work.
The dept. contains sixsub- professional groups as follows: COPDand corpulmonale, respiratory failure and respiratory support technology, bronchial asthma and allergic disease, lung respiratory infectious disease, interstitial lung disease and mediastinal pleural disease, pulmonary embolism and pulmonary vascular disease.Professional respiratory technologies such as mechanical ventilation, pleural biopsy, pleural closed drainage,examination and interventional treatment via bronchoscopy , and determination of lung function and airway reactivity.
The monitors of the ventilators, the infusion pumps and other medical devices are skillfully mastered by our nursing staff. The techniques of artificial airway management, deep venipuncture, oxygen cure, productive, nursing various respiratory diseases are mastered controlled by them too.
Pulmonary dep. is committed to caring for critically ill patients and patients with lung disease. This requires not only that we provide the best possible care, but that we convey these skills to trainees and that we develop novel approaches to understanding and managing these diseases through basic science and clinical and outcomes research.
【Discipline characteristic】
Since the establishment of the dept., especially since 2008, the bronchoscope technology has rapidly developed under the guidance of leaders. The technologies of high frequency electric cutting, high frequency condensation, frozen, and the TBNA, tracheal and bronchial stents security, and percutaneous lung biopsy, which are mediated by bronchoscopy, become mature and routine. With the support of the hospital ,we carried out the spontaneous fluorescence bronchoscope examination project, which provides clinical evidence for early diagnosis of lung cancer in 2011.The bronchoscopy room can now complete diagnosis and treatment of over 2600 patients annually. We can also complete recanalization with benign airway stenosis or occlusion, relieve airway obstruction due to malignancy, trachea - esophageal fistula closure problem cases as the treatment. We have achieved good social and economic benefits. We actively develop new and high technology at the same time.The level of bronchoscopeinterventional technology for diagnosis and treatment has become the top of our province. And in scientific research, teaching and training of talents of endoscopic techniques in grassroots hospitals, we have also made outstanding contributions.
Lung function examination room has imported the advanced German Jaeger modular instrument (MasterScreen series), which can complete a series set of lung function, bronchial provocation tests, etc. Lung function examination provides support of the diagnosis and treatment for cough variant asthma, preoperative evaluation of surgery operation. The fractional exhaled nitric-oxide detection technology has carried out recently, which can help diagnose , value and monitor respiratory diseases.
RICU has been extended to the large pattern,And the physicians of the RICU have mastered the technology of the noninvasive ventilation and ventilation, endotracheal intubation and percutaneous tracheotomy, saving a large amount of critical patients.
Pulmonary dept. has conducted bronchial arteriography and embolization technology, which playing an important role in rescuing patients with hemoptysis. For the diagnosis of unknown original pleural effusion , (benign,malignant pleural diseases and diffuse lung disease et al.), we use thoracoscopy technology to diagnose and provide the basis for the diagnosis of diffuse lung disease. CT-guided lung biopsy, as an effective and minimally invasive method,can help make clear the characteristic of lung nodules.
【Education and Research】
Pulmonary dep. assumes a prominent role in the routine educational mission of the Department of Internal Medicine and our hospital. Our educators have been trained and recognized as some of the top within the institution and serve in major leadership roles within the educational programs. We provides outstanding clinical training leading to both Pulmonary Medicine and Critical Care Medicine. We also provide training and mentoring in laboratory (bronchoscopy and lung function training)- and patient-based research to Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellows, as well as to postgraduate trainees and to undergraduate students.
Our research performed within the pulmonary diseases has greatly impacted our understanding of basic lung biology, disease pathogenesis, and targeted therapeutics. The divisional investigative portfolio is comprehensive, with specific areas of emphasis including pulmonary inflammation, injury, repair, and fibrosis and lung cancer. Researchers in the dep. participate in large multidisciplinary and multicenter disease in interstitial lung disease, COPD and acute Lung Injury. We have published more than 100 research papers in public medicine journals.
Our mission is to deliver excellent patient care, to develop new knowledge about the lung in health and disease, and to train individuals to be outstanding clinicians and researchers.