From May 22nd to 26th in 2023, Prof. Boriani, the world-class master for spinal tumor, came to Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital as its international visiting professor and carried out a series of activities for academic exchanges, including making rounds, providing surgical guidance, performing operations, giving training to the department, discussing the management of the department and difficult cases, giving public classes and so on.

The opening for Sino-Euro International Academic Week and the Sino-Euro Communication Center for Spinal Tumor

May 22nd marked the first day for Prof. Boriani to participate in the Sino-Euro International Academic Week in Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital.

Early in the morning, as soon as Prof. Boriani arrived in the hospital, on behalf of the hospital the president Wang Dazhong presented a bunch of fragrant flowers to Prof. Boriani and gave him a rapturous reception as he had traveled all the way from Italy .

On May 22nd, the Sino-Euro International Academic Week and the opening for Sino-Euro Communication Center for Spinal Tumor officially began in Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital. Leaders of Zhengzhou Municipal Health Commission and Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital gave their opening remarks to warmly welcome Prof. Boriani. During the conference, Prof. Boriani gave an introduction of the IRCCS Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute and his medical career.

Later on, Director Wang Binggui, the Party member of the Zhengzhou Municipal Health Commission and Wang Dazhong, the president of Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital unveiled the Sino-Euro Communication Center for Spinal Tumor together with Prof. Boriani.

The president of Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital Wang Dazhong issued the plaque for visiting professor to Prof. Boriani

Multiple media in Henan Province attended the event themselves to broadcast and gave an exclusive interview of Prof. Boriani after the meeting. In the interview, Prof. Boriani said that the establishment of the Communication Center could facilitate the clinical and academic exchanges between these two hospitals. The IRCCS Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute has treatment concepts and experience based on years of practice while Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital is located in the central China with a vast population. The latter has much more spinal tumor patients than the former. It also has massive clinical experience and cutting-edge surgical techniques and medical equipment. Therefore, the cooperation between these two hospitals can give play to their own advantages and better provide high-quality services for treating spinal tumor patients.

Make rounds

On the afternoon of May 22nd, accompanied by the vice president of the hospital Wang Yingqiu, Prof. Boriani came to visit the Department of Spine SurgeryⅠ, Ⅱ and Ⅲ, Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery and Department of Spine Surgery in Xingyang Health City. Directors from these departments gave an overview of their departments and also joined the ward rounds.

After the tour, Prof. Boriani came back to the Foreign Experts Station and had an in-depth discussion together with Director Wang Qingde, Director Pan Yulin and Director Yang Yong from the Departments of Spine Surgery about the possibility of applying microwave ablation technique in treating primary spinal tumors, the en bloc resection technique for spinal tumors and the views on targeted therapy for treating giant cell tumors of bone.

Having access to world-class medical services for spine diseases without going abroad

May 23rd was the day for providing outpatient consultation. Before he started, Prof. Boriani made ward rounds at the Department of Spine SurgeryⅠ, Ⅱ and Ⅲ, Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery. Prof. Boriani interacted deeply with surgeons of the departments about the treatment plans for the inpatients. They were very grateful for Prof. Boriani’s patience and explanation.

Later on, Prof. Boriani began to provide outpatient consultation for the whole day. Before he arrived, the entrance of the department had flooded with patients from all over Zhengzhou City and even patients from Gansu Province who were drawn by Prof. Boriani’s reputation. Different patients showed different symptoms, and were diagnosed with different kinds of spinal diseases such as thoracic spinal stenosis, postoperative lumbar degenerative disc diseases, spondylosynosis, cervical spondylotic myelopathy and spinal tumors.

The outpatient consultation lasted from 10 a.m to 6 p.m. As for every patient, Prof. Boriani  listened to their complaints patiently. After getting to know the patients’ conditions and pored over their MRI, he provided preliminary diagnosis for the patients and recommended suitable treatment plans for them. Prof. Boriani broke down language barriers with Chinese patients with his amicability and kindness and warmed their hearts.

The Piezosurgery Device from a Chinese brand provides precision and effectiveness

On May 24th, knowing that Prof. Boriani was a fan of Chinese tea, Director Wang Qingde had already prepared black tea in the office to enjoy it with Prof. Boriani. In the office, they discussed how to deal with the incomplete separation of the spinal tumor from the adjacent tissues and discussed the arrangement for surgery of the morning.

Afterwards, accompanied by Director Wang Qingde, they came into the operating room. Prof. Boriani first observed a posterior atlantoaxial fusion for a patient with atlantoaxial dislocation. The chief surgeons, Director Pan Yulin and Director Wang Qingde, used a posterior fixation system designed by Prof. Wang Chao from Peking University Third Hospital to complete this surgery.

Then Prof. Boriani participated in an osteotomy for kyphosis in adults. Prof. Boriani also participated in the preoperative discussion of the patient the day before the surgery. And during the surgery, Prof. Boriani had an in-depth discussion with Director Pan Yulin about the surgical techniques of spinal correction surgery, the options of osteotomy, and intraoperative hemostasis and nerves protection.

Prof. Boriani also personally tried to use the domestic piezosurgery device during the operation and heaped praise on it, saying that it let out smaller noise compared with other similar products of foreign brands that he had ever used, and he might consider using this brand of piezosurgery device instead after returning to Italy. Director Wang Qingde also said that it comes from a Chinese brand and is the pride of China.

On the afternoon of May 24th, Prof. Boriani visited the Department of Bone Tumor and Bone Diseases I and II in Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital respectively, carried out case discussions and made rounds and did other activities. Director Wang Shunli and Director Hai Guodong's team were delighted by Prof. Boriani's arrival.

Prof. Boriani had visited Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital in 2010, and this is his second visit after 13 years. Prof. Boriani congratulated the two departments on the successful surgical cases shared by them and hoped that there would be more opportunities to have in-depth academic exchanges with them in the future to share the experience of multidisciplinary cooperation in treating bone tumors.

Instructive public classes given by the world-class master for spinal tumor

On May 25th, public classes given by the world-class master for spinal tumor, one of the academic activities of the Sino-Euro International Academic Week, was held at the Xingyang Health City District of Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital. More than 100 people attended the event, including Wei Lan, vice president of Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital, Zhang Jianping, head of department of pharmacy administration, directors of relevant departments, surgeons and surgeons from all medical associations. Wang Qingde, director of Department of Spine Surgery I, was the host of the event.

During the three-hour conference, Prof. Boriani shared his insights on the treatment of spinal tumors. In his opinion, primary tumors and metastases vary in terms of frequency, diagnosis and treatment, and the first step is to make the correct diagnosis.

In the first session, Prof. Boriani gave a detailed introduction of the importance of proper diagnosis of primary tumors and metastases, the role of biopsy and the protocol for the treatment of metastases. In the second session, Prof. Boriani’s lecture is about the imaging and staging of various typical primary tumors, how to plan and perform enbloc resection in the spine, including some tips and tricks for specific steps to avoid complications, such as reducing intraoperative and postoperative bleeding.

In the afternoon, the "Seminar on Difficult Cases Discussion of Sino-Euro International Academic Week" was held in the meeting room on the 6th floor of the outpatient clinic in the west campus of the hospital. Prof. Boriani and other experts in spine surgery, bone tumor and scoliosis gave lectures and discussed cases about the difficult and hot topics in the treatment of spine tumor.

From theoretical study, practical skills and approaches to motivate young spine surgeons, Prof. Boriani interacted face-to-face with young surgeons at the conference. He believes that the passion for a medical career is the wellspring of progress for young surgeons.

As for scientific research, Prof. Boriani said that Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital has sufficient clinical data and a large sample size, so it has great advantages in carrying out clinical research. Afterwards, eight young surgeons gave reports on difficult cases in fluent English, and Prof. Boriani gave comments on the diagnosis, treatment and surgical options they made for every case.

Seminar on the management of the department

May 26th was a special day. It was not academic related, but closely related to the development of a hospital and specialty construction. It was the seminar on management of the department. In the morning, Prof. Boriani met with the members of eight departments of Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital, including Departments of Spine Surgery, Departments of Bone Tumor and Bone Diseases, Department of Pediatric Orthopedics II - Scoliosis.

Prof. Boriani first introduced the organizational structure of the Spine Tumor Center at the Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute and emphasized that multidisciplinary cooperation is of paramount importance for treating spine tumor, a complex discipline.

Afterwards, the directors of the departments, experts from related departments and Prof. Boriani had an in-depth discussion on the diagnosis and treatment of spine tumor, multidisciplinary cooperation, implementation of basic and clinical research, training of specialists in spine tumor, construction of the talent pipeline of the department, promotion of young surgeons, and writing and publishing of medical papers. Prof. Boriani shared his experience in Italy, which is significant for the future development of the specialty of spine tumor in Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital.

Prof. Boriani’ s visit as a visiting professor at Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital came to a perfect end.

Prof. Boriani will visit China again in September

The 3^rd Sino-Euro International Orthopedics Summit (live broadcast) will kick off in parallel in ten Grade Ⅲ-A hospitals in China from September 9^th to September 23^rd. This summit focuses on subspecialties including minimally invasive spine surgery, joint surgery, trauma surgery, sports medicine, foot and ankle surgery, pediatric orthopedics and bone tumor. Prof. Boriani will serve as a member of the European Presidium of the summit and come to Grade Ⅲ-A hospitals in China to perform surgery being broadcast live.

Prof. Boriani is the first world-class master that visited China three years after the pandemic broke out. People dedicated to research always leave some legacies to the world and their accomplishment can still strike a chord with thousands of people after hundreds of years. They can even communicate with later generations through their masterpieces.They are truly the great doctors in the world. No other hospital can be more fascinating than the IRCCS Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute. It gives hope for life to patients who are in the abyss at the darkest hours of their lives. He is Prof. Boriani, the world-class master for spinal tumor from the famous IRCCS Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute in Bologna.