The hospital was established by the Shanghai First Medical College (now affiliated with Fudan University) with the most advanced equipment and technology. It is a large-scale, comprehensive teaching hospital with 3,200 beds and sees patients both from throughout China and overseas. It is surrounded by 21 teaching and 75 advising hospitals.874
Chongqing Organ Transplant Center is part of this hospital and covers multiple disciplines. The hospital started performing corneal transplants in the 1960s875 and kidney transplants in 1981. It performed its first parathyroid gland transplant in 2000 and first successful liver transplant in 2001. It began to develop allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplants in October 2005.876 In 2009, it established the largest stem cell transplant unit in the city.877
The hospital’s website published a list titled “Chongqing City Medical Service Prices (Trial),” issued on On March 26, 2004 by the Chongqing Pricing Bureau and the Chongqing Health Bureau.
The list includes a full range of organ, tissue, and cell transplants. These prices are per operation, cover the transplant surgery only, and exclude the organ and procurement costs: 878
- Corneal transplant 1,100 RMB/operation
- Simultaneous penetrating keratoplasty (PK), cataract removal and intraocular lens implantation (triple procedure) 1,500 RMB/operation
- Lung transplant (excluding donor and storage/transportation) 5,000 RMB/operation
- Lung resection 1,900 RMB/operation
- Heart transplant 5,000 RMB/operation
- Heart and lung transplant 6,500 RMB/operation
- Kidney transplant 2,800 RMB/operation
- Spleen transplant 2,200 RMB/operation
- Small intestine transplant 3,000 RMB/operation
- Pancreas transplant 5,000 RMB/operation
- Bone graft 650 RMB/operation
- Liver transplant 1,500 RMB/operation
- Transplanted liver resection + new transplant 16,000 RMB/operation
- Combined organ transplant 17,000 RMB/operation
- Bone marrow transplant 2,700 RMB/operation
- Peripheral blood stem cell transplant 2,800 RMB/operation
Its hepatobiliary surgery department is a national key clinical discipline and serves as the Chongqing Organ Transplant Center, with accredited programs for graduate and PhD degrees. Its medical team includes 6 professors, 8 associate professors, and 14 PhDs, half of whom have received professional training abroad. The department has 150 beds.879
The department’s director, Du Chengyou, is very knowledgeable in liver transplantation and other areas, and has superb surgical skills. He received his PhD from the Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery at West China Medical University (now Sichuan Medical University) and studied anti-rejection drugs at AstaTech Inc. in the U.S. He also studied liver transplantation at the University of Strasbourg in France and the Affiliated Hospital of Kyoto University in Japan.880
Chief surgeon Wu Zhongjun specializes in liver resection, repair, transplantation, and prevention of post-transplantation complications. He started his career in October 2005 after receiving a clinical postdoctoral degree from Zhejiang University. From September 2008 to June of 2009, he was a visiting scholar at Université de Toulouse Liver Transplant Center in France.
Associate chief surgeon Huang Ping has also been heavily involved in liver transplants. He received his doctorate in surgery from Chongqing Medical University and undertook research and study at the Huazhong University of Science & Technology Tongji Hospital Transplant Research Center. He was a senior visiting scholar at Hong Kong University Queen Mary Hospital’s hepatobiliary surgery department under Professor Sheung Tat Fan. He also pursued further study and research at the University of Strasbourg hepatobiliary surgery department and organ transplant center in France.881
The website for the hospital’s Department of General Surgery official website claims that it has performed 132 liver transplants since 2001.882 However, Du Chengyou wrote in his thesis that the research was targeting 10 patients who suffered biliary complications among the 140 liver transplant patients at the organ transplant center between January and March of 2005. This means that from January to March of 2005, this center performed 140 liver transplants, which is greater than the 15-year total on the official website.883
The urologic surgery department carried out the first allogeneic kidney transplant in Chongqing and serves as the Chongqing Kidney Transplant Center. The department has 8 senior staff, 10 associate senior staff, 2 PhD advisors, 12 graduate advisors,67 nurses, 3 in-patient wards, and 156 beds. The department’s website does not provide any statistics regarding its volume of kidney transplants.884
Its ophthalmology department began conducting corneal transplants in the 1960s and administratively hosts the Chongqing Eye Bank. It ranks among the top in the country for corneal transplant volume and for the most donor corneas received.885