The Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at LIHUILI HOSPITAL has been consistently recognized as the center for the diagnosis and treatment of critical cardiothoracic surgical diseases in Ningbo. With some wards set in Xingning Hospital Zone and the Eastern Hospital Zone, the department owns 4 wards and 167 beds, and an ICU for cardiothoracic surgery offers 8 beds, making it the largest cardiothoracic surgery department in Zhejiang Province. The overall strength of the discipline has reached the top rate in Zhejiang Province. It is a key discipline jointly developed by Zhejiang Province and Ningbo Municipality, the regional special disease center in Zhejiang Province, the initiating unit of the Eastern Zhejiang Cardiovascular Discipline Alliance, the initiating unit of Ningbo Cardiovascular Disease Diagnosis and Treatment Center, and among the first volume of clinical specialty of Ningbo. It has now identified as a heart surgery center in Eastern Zhejiang and one of the famous disciplines in Eastern China.

The scope of cardiac surgery covers most diseases of cardiac surgery, in which the patients with difficult and severe diseases account for 1/3 aged from 3 months to 85 years old, nearly 13,500 cases of cardiac surgery are performed, with nearly 600 cases of heart surgery performed a year, and the annual volume of general thoracic surgery exceeds 3,000 cases. With definitive team formation, the department has a reasonable talent pool and its overall strength stands at the forefront of Ningbo, with 43 items filling the voids of Ningbo’s cardiothoracic surgery. Cardiac surgery covers the great majority of diseases in cardiothoracic surgery, in which valve replacement, coronary artery bypass grafting, large vessel surgery and complex congenital heart surgery account for more than 75%, and the surgical mortality rate is only 1.2%, at a level better than the average level of China, and the quality levels of surgery stand at the forefront of Zhejiang Province. The department performed lung transplantation for the first time in Zhejiang Province and was one of the first operators to perform heart transplantation.

The department owns the state-of-the-art equipment and immense technical strength, maintains the advanced levels in Zhejiang Province and stands at the forefront of Eastern Zhejiang with respect to valve surgery, coronary surgery, great vessel surgery, and complex congenital heart correction. It has performed total arch replacement, multi-valve replacement and other difficult operations. With specialty features of the surgical treatment of cardio great vessels, the department is able to perform various procedures such as total arch replacement, total arch replacement + elephant trunk surgery, half arch replacement, BENTALL'S surgery, interventional endovascular aortic isolation, and "hybrid" surgery which have saved a number of patients with aortic aneurysm and aortic dissection, with a certain degree of influence in Eastern Zhejiang and across the province. Coronary surgery and valvular surgery developed earlier in Zhejiang. At present, the number of surgical cases and the quality levels of surgery are advanced in Zhejiang Province and stand at the forefront in Eastern Zhejiang. In recent years, coronary artery bypass surgery has developed at a fast pace, coronary artery surgery includes emergency coronary artery bypass grafting, off-pump surgery, on-pump minimally invasive surgery, "hybrid" surgery, bypass plus valve replacement, and coronary artery bypass grafting, with the surgical success rate up to 99%. Proven experience has been accumulated in multiple complex operations such as coronary heart disease multi-vessel disease bypass, elderly and critically ill patients, with the surgical success rate exceeding 99%. The department can routinely perform re-valve replacement and multi-valve replacement, including simultaneous three-valve replacement, aortic annulus enlargement, and the percentage of valvuloplasty has exceeded 10%. Proven experience has been accumulated in the field of valvular surgery, there are some advantages in the treatment of severe valvular disease, multiple valve replacement, re-valve replacement, and elderly valve degenerative diseases, and the gross surgical mortality rate is lower than the mean level of China. Extensive experience has been accumulated with respect to the treatment of Marfan syndrome, true and false aortic aneurysms, and aortic dissection. The department is able to perform various kinds of lung surgery, esophageal surgery, mediastinal tumor resection, surgical treatment of empyema and chest wall diseases, including laparoscopic lung lobectomy, lung cancer radical surgery, esophageal cancer radical surgery, mediastinal tumor resection, hand sweat treatment and other minimally invasive surgeries, with the rescue rate of severe chest trauma exceeding 95%. Extensive clinical experience has been accumulated in respect of the rescue treatment of severe chest trauma. The department has been approved for drug clinical trial (GCP) qualification and rolls out related works.

The discipline team demonstrates a solid strength in science and education and it has chaired nearly 40 projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, provincial and ministerial projects, major projects of Ningbo, and municipal and departmental projects, conferred the award sof municipal and provincial deliverables, with approximately 100 articles published. The team has hosted a plurality of the state-level and provincial continuing education classes, trained 20 doctoral students of master and doctoral candidates at Ningbo University; developed young in-service doctors and enrolled them in “Ningbo Leading and Top-notch Talents”.