The Department of Thoracic Surgery of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University was founded in October 1954, one of the earliest thoracic surgeries in China, and was mainly responsible for the surgical treatment of general thoracic diseases and some heart diseases. At that time, it was mainly responsible for the surgical treatment of general thoracic diseases and some heart diseases. At the early stage of the establishment of the department, there were only a few medical and nursing staff, a few beds, and simple equipment. Under the leadership of Prof. Zhao Shijie, the department overcame all the difficulties to carry out thoracic and cardiac surgeries and successfully completed the dog head transplantation, which was the first step to a high level of technology. Under the continuous efforts of all the predecessors, the Department of Thoracic Surgery continued to develop and grow, and was separated from the Department of Thoracic and Cardiac Surgery to become an independent department in 1983.
From 1985 to 1995, Prof. Yang Chunwen was the first chief of the Department of Thoracic Surgery, mainly engaged in the clinical work of General Thoracic Surgery and non-corporeal circulation cardiac surgery. In 1993, he was the first to carry out animal experiments on lung transplantation in China and completed a single-lung transplantation. In 1996, Prof. Chen Houkun became the chief of Thoracic Surgery and set up Thoracic Surgery Intensive Care Unit, which was systematically equipped with monitors, ventilators, anesthesia machines and other equipments to ensure the safety of postoperative patients of Thoracic Surgery. 1998, Prof. Tan Pailin became the chief of Thoracic Surgery, and the number of inpatients of Thoracic Surgery and the number of annual surgical cases have increased dramatically. In 2003, Prof. Zhang Linyou became the chief of the Department of Thoracic Surgery, and the Department of Thoracic Surgery moved into the recently completed Surgery Building. The number of beds in the Department of Thoracic Surgery has increased from 24 to 50, and the wards are neat and bright, and there is an intensive care ward with 5 guardianship beds, each equipped with multifunctional monitors, imported respiratory machines, and various types of microfluidic pumps.
Thoracic surgery treatment: benign and malignant tumors of lung, bronchiectasis, lung abscess, tuberculous pyothorax, pulmonary blisters, pulmonary cysts, pulmonary isolation, pleural diseases, chest wall tumors, mediastinal tumors, benign and malignant tumors of the esophagus, pancreatic achalasia and other diseases. On the basis of ensuring basic thoracic surgery, the department has actively carried out thoracoscopic and mediastinoscopic surgeries, standardized treatment of lung cancer, tracheal surgery, lung transplantation and other new techniques of thoracic surgery. The Department of Thoracic Surgery took the lead in carrying out thoracoscopic surgery in the early nineties in Heilongjiang Province. After ten years' development, it can now skillfully complete the diagnosis and treatment of lung, esophagus, mediastinum and thymus diseases under VATS. Thoracoscopic surgery has become a part of our daily medical work, with hundreds of cases per year. On the basis of thoracoscopic work, our department carried out mediastinal lymph node biopsy under mediastinoscopy in September 2005 with satisfactory results. The number of consultations has been gradually increasing and the quality of medical treatment has been continuously improving. For three consecutive years, the number of annual hospitalizations has exceeded 1,000, and the number of annual surgical cases has exceeded 800, which is ranked first in the three northeastern provinces. The quality of medical treatment has been improved continuously, so that the success rate of critical resuscitation reaches more than 98%, and the mortality rate has been stabilized at less than 3% for 7 consecutive years, and less than 1% in the last 3 years.