China's Top Departments: Orthopedics at Xijing Hospital (Air Force Medical University)

If you are dealing with complex spine disease, joint damage needing arthroplasty, a severe limb injury, or a bone tumor requiring limb-salvage reconstruction, the Department of Orthopedics at Xijing Hospital in Xi'an is one of China's most established destinations — a dedicated "hospital-within-a-hospital" founded in 1955, a National Key Discipline, and home to the Military Orthopedic Research Institute. And because Xi'an sits at the starting point of the ancient Silk Road and remains a key node of the Belt and Road Initiative, the city offers genuine connectivity advantages for patients traveling from Central Asia, Southeast Asia and beyond.

About the Hospital

• Full name: The First Affiliated Hospital of the Air Force Medical University of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (widely known as "Xijing Hospital").
• Grade: Class A tertiary (highest tier) general hospital; rated A++++, the top rating in the Fudan Institute of Hospital Management's China Hospital Ranking.
• Location: No. 127 Changle West Road, Xincheng District, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China.
• History: Its origins trace to the Central Hospital founded in Yan'an in November 1939; in 1954 the affiliated hospitals of the former Fourth and Fifth Military Medical Universities merged to form the First Affiliated Hospital of the Fourth Military Medical University; it has used the name "Xijing Hospital" publicly since October 1984 and transferred to the Air Force in 2017.
• Scale: A campus of about 430 mu (approx. 28.7 hectares) with roughly 500,000 m² of floor space and about 3,000 authorized beds; 9 national key disciplines (across 14 departments) and 17 national key clinical specialties (public figures as of September 2025).
• Standing: Public materials describe the hospital as consistently ranked among China's leading hospitals and standing at a leading level internationally in fields such as organ transplantation and burns.
• "Hospital-within-a-hospital" system: The hospital has built six specialized "hospitals-within-a-hospital" — digestive diseases, orthopedics, brain, cardiovascular diseases, dermatology and plastic surgery — of which Orthopedics is one, providing a dedicated, large-scale specialty platform.
• Access and location: Situated in Xi'an's central Xincheng District, close to Metro Line 1 and multiple bus routes, and a short distance from Xi'an Railway Station. Xi'an is the starting point of the ancient Silk Road and a key node of the Belt and Road Initiative, offering geographical and connectivity advantages for patients from Central Asia, Southeast Asia and beyond.

About the Department

• Department: Department of Orthopedics (one of the hospital's "hospitals-within-a-hospital", also known as Xijing Orthopedic Hospital).
• Founded: Established in 1955 by the renowned orthopedic specialist Professor Lu Yupu.
• Profile: A national key discipline and the Military Orthopedic Research Institute (全军骨科研究所), maintaining a leading position in northwest China.
• Sub-specialties: Spine surgery, joint surgery, orthopedic trauma, bone tumors and hand/microsurgery, with particular strengths in degenerative spinal disease and joint and sports injuries.

Academic Standing and Accreditation

• National key discipline: Orthopedics is a national key discipline (based on public materials).
• Military Orthopedic Research Institute: Xijing's orthopedics department serves as a military orthopedic research platform, carrying out clinical, teaching and research work for both military and civilian patients.
• Institutional support: Affiliated with the Air Force Medical University (formerly the Fourth Military Medical University); the hospital has 1 national key laboratory, 4 military key laboratories and 1 national clinical research center.
• Reputation: Public ranking materials describe Xijing's orthopedics as a leading program in northwest China.
• Research impact (orthopedics): The Xijing orthopedics team of Luo Zhuojing and Huang Jinghui published research on peripheral nerve injury repair in Advanced Materials (IF≈29, Q1), a top materials-science journal; in 2023 the team contributed to a study in Science on "Discovery of key stem cell populations in deer antler regeneration," reflecting international influence in tissue regeneration and repair.

Core Techniques and Specialties

• Spine surgery: Minimally invasive treatment of cervical spondylosis and lumbar spinal stenosis; early adoption of OLIF (oblique lateral interbody fusion) and cervical artificial disc replacement; navigation-guided spinal instrumentation.
• Joint surgery: Minimally invasive arthroscopic repair; platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy for osteoarthritis; total hip and knee arthroplasty.
• Orthopedic trauma and hand/microsurgery (severe limb trauma): The hospital's "series of treatment techniques for severe limb war trauma" is a signature strength; in April 2023, a hand-surgery team led by Professor Cong Rui performed the world's first "full-shape composite replantation and reconstruction after ectopic nursing of a mangled severed forearm," offering a new option for limb salvage and functional reconstruction of severe amputations.
• Bone tumors and 3D-printed prosthetics: Completed Asia's first implantation of 3D-printed custom prostheses for the scapula and pelvis; uses physician-engineer collaboration and patient-specific 3D-printed prostheses to achieve limb salvage and reconstruction of large bone defects after bone-tumor resection.
• Bone regeneration and tissue engineering: Nationally pioneered composite xenogeneic bone grafting in 1991; the department conducts basic and clinical research on degenerative musculoskeletal diseases and tissue regeneration and repair.
• Spinal deformity: Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for scoliosis correction is one of the hospital's signature strengths.
• Neck and lower-back disorders: The Xijing Hospital Medical Center for Neck and Low-Back Disorders was established in November 2023.

Expert Team

• Lu Yupu: Founder of Xijing's orthopedics department and a renowned orthopedic specialist; established the department in 1955.
• Luo Zhuojing: Orthopedic specialist at Xijing Hospital, leading the spine surgery team (cervical spondylosis and lumbar spinal stenosis, minimally invasive treatment) and achieving international results in peripheral nerve injury repair research.
• Huang Jinghui: Orthopedics team specialist at Xijing Hospital, focused on tissue regeneration and repair.
• Wang Zhen: Professor of orthopedics at Xijing Hospital and one of the leading experts cited in public materials.
• Cong Rui: Professor of orthopedics at Xijing Hospital and head of the hand-surgery team, who led the world's first ectopic-nursing replantation and reconstruction of a severed limb.

Conditions Suited to This Department

• Degenerative spinal diseases such as cervical spondylosis, lumbar disc herniation, lumbar spinal stenosis and spondylolisthesis
• Scoliosis/deformity and spinal cord injury
• Osteoarthritis, femoral head necrosis, and hip/knee joint disorders (requiring arthroplasty or arthroscopy)
• Sports injuries (ligaments, meniscus, rotator cuff, etc.)
• Complex fractures of the limbs and pelvis, severe limb trauma, replantation of severed limbs/digits, and limb-defect reconstruction
• Bone tumors and limb-salvage reconstruction of large bone defects after tumor resection
• Neck, shoulder, lower-back and leg pain; osteoporotic fractures

Address and Contact Information

• Address: No. 127 Changle West Road, Xincheng District, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China
• Switchboard: +86-29-88886666 / +86-29-84774114 (subject to the hospital's official daily announcement)
• Website: xjwww.fmmu.edu.cn (First Affiliated Hospital of the Air Force Medical University / Xijing Hospital)

For a quick overview of the department, see the Xijing Hospital Orthopedics department page.

Ready to explore orthopedic care in Xi'an? Contact Medora for a free, personalized consultation. We'll review your condition, connect you with the right sub-specialty team, and coordinate your entire journey — from medical record translation to post-treatment follow-up.