China's Top Departments: Hepatobiliary Surgery at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University

If you or a loved one is facing a hepatobiliary-pancreatic condition — liver cancer, hilar cholangiocarcinoma, pancreatic tumors, complex bile duct stones, or the need for a liver transplant assessment — the Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University is the largest and one of the strongest hepatobiliary-pancreatic centers in northwest China.

The department is a National Clinical Key Specialty and the largest hepatobiliary-pancreatic surgery specialty in northwest China, with 183 beds, 197 medical staff and 65 physicians. It is also the birthplace of "magnetic surgery" — a discipline concept proposed here for the first time anywhere in the world — whose magnetic-assisted vessel reconstruction shortened the anhepatic phase of liver transplantation from the internationally reported 30–40 minutes to 9 minutes 50 seconds.

At Medora, we help international patients from Central Asia, Southeast Asia and beyond access this department for liver transplantation, complex hepatobiliary-pancreatic surgery and second opinions. Here's what you need to know.

About the Hospital

The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University is a large Grade IIIA hospital under China's National Health Commission, located in Xi'an — the central city of northwest China, the starting point of the ancient Silk Road and a key node of the Belt and Road Initiative.

• History: In 1937, as the War of Resistance broke out, faculty and students of the National Peking University Medical College moved west and founded the Xi'an Provisional University Medical College, from which the affiliated hospital was born. It relocated to its current site in 1956 and took its present name in 2000 after the merger with Xi'an Jiaotong University.
• Standing: Ranked among the top in China in the national tertiary public hospital performance assessment from 2018 to 2022; selected as one of the first "coaching" institutions for the creation of a National Medical Center.
• Scale: 55 medical departments and laboratories (44 clinical departments and 11 medical laboratories).
• Transplant credentials: Licensed for heart and lung transplantation, with combined multi-organ transplants (liver-kidney, heart-kidney, pancreas-kidney) already performed. More than 7,000 kidney transplants and 1,400+ liver transplants (including 1,206 deceased-donor liver transplants). The hospital performed China's first living-related liver transplant for the child of an IVF family. "Key technological innovation and clinical application in kidney transplantation" won a National Science and Technology Progress Award (Second Prize). Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation ranks first in northwest China.
• Medicine–engineering integration: 17 innovative technologies across five magnetic categories (magnetic compression, magnetic anchoring, magnetic navigation, magnetic levitation, magnetic tracing); the world's first 200 W blue-laser surgical device and a domestically developed ECMO system were successfully developed and put into clinical use; self-developed artificial cardiac pacemakers still supply iterative products to the clinic.

About the Department

The Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery is an integrated center for the prevention and treatment of hepatobiliary-pancreatic diseases, and the largest hepatobiliary-pancreatic surgery specialty in northwest China.

• Credentials: One of the first clinical doctoral degree-granting units in northwest China; a Ministry of Health training base for endoscopic diagnostic and therapeutic techniques; a training base of China's ERCP standardized talent-training program; the Shaanxi Provincial Clinical Medical Research Sub-center for Hepatobiliary Diseases; the Shaanxi Anti-Cancer Association's Precision Medicine Demonstration Center for Hepatobiliary-Pancreatic Tumors; a pilot base of the standardized diagnosis and treatment training program for primary liver cancer; and a Shaanxi Provincial Advantageous Medical Specialty.
• Scale: 183 beds; 197 medical staff; 65 physicians, including 13 professors, 11 associate professors, 11 doctoral supervisors and 51 physicians holding a medical doctorate.
• Sub-specialty structure: 12 integrated units — liver surgery, biliary surgery, pancreatic surgery, hepatobiliary tumors, minimally invasive treatment of hepatobiliary-pancreatic diseases, interventional/ablation therapy, metabolic surgery, liver transplantation, hepatobiliary ERCP, pediatric hepatobiliary surgery, a dedicated hepatobiliary ICU and a hepatobiliary laboratory.

Academic Standing

• National Clinical Key Specialty and Shaanxi Provincial Advantageous Medical Specialty.
• National training and demonstration bases: Ministry of Health endoscopic techniques training base; ERCP standardized talent-training base; pilot base for standardized diagnosis and treatment of primary liver cancer.
• Pancreatic disease collaboration: Among the first in northwest China to establish a pancreatic tumor MDT clinical treatment team. In 2017 it co-founded a Collaborative Center for Minimally Invasive Treatment of Chronic Pancreatitis with the National Clinical Research Center for Digestive Diseases (Shanghai).
• International academic influence: Since the first edition in 2018, the hospital has hosted four consecutive International Conference on Magnetic Surgery meetings and led the formulation of the "Xi'an Consensus on International Magnetic Surgery Development" — producing eight international magnetic surgery consensus documents in total.

Core Technologies

• Routine high-difficulty surgery: Liver transplantation, pancreaticoduodenectomy with combined vascular resection (Whipple procedure), anatomical hepatic trisegmentectomy, surgery for complex biliary strictures, and radical resection of hilar cholangiocarcinoma combined with hemihepatectomy are all performed routinely.
• Complex minimally invasive surgery: Robot-assisted (da Vinci) minimally invasive pancreaticoduodenectomy, laparoscopic anatomical hepatic lobectomy and laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy.
• Magnetic surgery (signature strength): The team was the first in the world to propose the concept of "Magnetic Surgery" and its discipline system, and has created 27 innovative techniques, including magnetic compression repair of rectovaginal fistula and recanalization of rectal atresia. Magnetic-assisted rapid reconstruction of major vessels in liver transplantation shortened the anhepatic phase from the internationally reported 30–40 minutes to 9 minutes 50 seconds.
• Endoscopic diagnosis and treatment: Triple-scope combined techniques (choledochoscopy, duodenoscopy/ERCP and laparoscopy), backed by its role as a national ERCP and endoscopic training base.
• Integrated pancreatic disease management: MDT for pancreatic tumors; stepwise treatment of acute pancreatitis; minimally invasive treatment of chronic pancreatitis including extracorporeal shock-wave lithotripsy (ESWL) for pancreatic duct stones.
• Other specialties: Interventional/ablation therapy for hepatobiliary diseases, metabolic surgery, pediatric hepatobiliary surgery, and a dedicated hepatobiliary ICU critical-care platform.
• Advanced equipment: Fully digital operating rooms, fiber choledochoscopes, mother-baby scopes, fiber duodenoscopes, endoscopic ultrasound systems, intraoperative ultrasound, intraoperative cholangiography TV monitoring systems, radiofrequency ablation devices, CUSA and liver function analyzers.

Expert Team

• Lü Yi (吕毅) — Professor, chief physician and doctoral supervisor; Vice President of Xi'an Jiaotong University, President of the First Affiliated Hospital and Vice President of the Hepatobiliary Hospital. Recipient of a special government allowance from the State Council; a young and middle-aged expert with outstanding contributions recognized by the Ministry of Health; academic leader of a Ministry of Education innovation team; distinguished "Sanqin Scholar" professor of Shaanxi Province; Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (ACS Fellow). He was the first in the world to propose the concept of "magnetic surgery" and founded the medicine–engineering innovation platform "Surgeon's Dream Works." As first contributor, he received a National Science and Technology Progress Award (Second Prize), a First Prize for Technological Invention of the Ministry of Education, and both First and Second Prizes for Science and Technology of Shaanxi Province.
• Wu Zheng (仵正) — Professor; Director of the Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery; chaired the hospital's 2017 Chang'an Forum on Hepatobiliary-Pancreatic-Splenic Surgery and the launch of the Chronic Pancreatitis Minimally Invasive Treatment Collaborative Center.
• Liu Qingguang (刘青光) — Professor; Vice President of the First Affiliated Hospital.
• Wang Bo (王博) — Chief physician and doctoral supervisor; Deputy Director of the department; member of the Youth Committee of the Chinese Medical Association's Organ Transplantation Society, member of the Transplantation Group of the Chinese Medical Association's Surgery Society, standing member of the Liver Transplantation Branch of the China International Exchange and Promotive Association for Medical and Health Care, and Vice Chairman of the Organ Transplantation Physicians Branch of the Shaanxi Medical Doctor Association. As a core member of the hospital's liver transplantation team, he has participated in more than 600 clinical liver transplants.
• Senior predecessors: Professor Pan Cheng'en (潘承恩) and other senior hepatobiliary experts laid a deep foundation for the department's development.

Note: titles and clinic schedules are subject to the hospital's current official announcements.

Suitable Conditions

• Liver tumors: primary liver cancer, liver metastases, hepatic hemangioma, and cases requiring anatomical hepatectomy or hepatic trisegmentectomy
• End-stage liver disease/cirrhosis requiring liver transplantation assessment; living-related liver transplantation and multi-organ combined transplantation assessment (liver-kidney, pancreas-kidney, etc.)
• Biliary diseases: hilar cholangiocarcinoma, gallbladder cancer, complex intrahepatic bile duct stones, complex biliary strictures and reoperation after multiple biliary surgeries
• Pancreatic diseases: benign and malignant pancreatic tumors, severe acute pancreatitis, chronic pancreatitis, pancreatic duct stones
• Portal hypertension
• Cases requiring robot-assisted or laparoscopic minimally invasive hepatobiliary-pancreatic surgery
• Pediatric hepatobiliary surgery

Address and Contact

• Main campus: No. 277 Yanta West Road, Yanta District, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province (Postal code: 710061)
• South campus: No. 88 Zhuque Avenue, Yanta District, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province
• Switchboard: 029-85323112; Hospital Office (duty line): 029-85323200
• Ward nurse stations: Ward 1: 029-85323890; Ward 2: 029-85323895; Ward 3: 029-85323900; Ward 4: 029-85323905; ICU: 029-85324641
• Websites: www.dyyy.xjtu.edu.cn; www.jdyfy.com

At Medora, we provide case review before you travel, coordination with the hospital, interpreter services (English, Russian), and accommodation and follow-up support in Xi'an.

For related strengths at the same hospital, see our guides to cardiovascular medicine at the same hospital and organ transplant at the same hospital.

Contact Medora for a free consultation about hepatobiliary surgery at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University.

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This article is compiled from the hospital's official website, Xi'an Jiaotong University's official website and public reports; details are subject to the hospital's current announcements.