Neurosurgical service in National Cheng Kung University Hospital (神經外科)

Neurosurgical service in National Cheng Kung University Hospital was first established in June, 1988. At the beginning, Dr. Chung-Ching Chio and E-Jian Lee worked together to take the initiative of this division. In 1990, Dr. Hsing-Hung Chen, Chi-Wen Zhang and Lin-Hsue Yang joined this team and strengthened the manpower of this branch. At the same year, this department was authorized as the first training center for neurosurgery at the Tainan region. During the past twenty years, the clinical services, both in outpatient visits and the number of operations, have increase significantly. Nowadays, our department has achieved a responsibility of not only the leadership in southern Taiwan, but also providing a consummate medical environment for people living in this area.

At the present time, we have 7 faculty staffs, namely E-Jian Lee (director), Ming-Yang Lee, Liang-Chao Wang, Chi-Wen Chang, Cheng-Di Chiu, Yu-Chang Hung, and Jung-Shun Li, and 2 residents, Chih-Yuan Huang and Shih-Huang Dai, in the institute\KK Kk . We performed approximately 800 operations annually, including the skull base surgery, surgery for cerebral vascular aneurysm, cerebral arteriovenous malformation, benign and malignant brain tumors, microvascular decompression, intracranial hemorrhage, stereotactic aspiration or surgical management, spinal tumors, microscopic or endoscopic lumbar discectomy, laminoplasty, endoscopic sympathectomy for hyperhidrosis palmaris, bromhidrosis, and the release for carpal tunnel syndrome. We are able to carry out all kinds of neurosurgical procedures available by hospital located elsewhere in Taiwan.
We now have 50-60 ward beds in available for general use and 9-10 intensive caring beds for critical patients. A full-time doctor is also assigned to assist the care for ICU patients. The medical treatment provided by this department has being blossomed out as the leadership both in quality and quantity in southern Taiwan. Moreover, we are now developing various novel treatment modalities such as neuronavigation for image-guided minimally invasive neurosurgery.
Training
The residency for neurosurgeons in our division consisted of two-year training of general surgery, followed by 4 years of clinical neurosurgery training. The first 3 years in the clinical neurosurgical training include general training on neurology, radiology, and neuropathology for at least 3 mouths. Other training courses include ward, ICU training, and basic neurosurgical emergency management and fundamental neurosurgical training. We now are allowed to train one specialist in candidate per year. They hope the quota can be increased to two diplomates per year by a couple of years.
We possess 3 full sets of surgical microscopes, 2 sets of stereotaxic instruments, and a set of digital subtraction angiography (DSA). The DSA surgical room is under construction. Besides, the hospital is also equipped with Cyber-knife and neuronavigation system, which provide alternative treatments for patients of cerebral arteriovenous malformation and brain tumor in deeper brain. The intensive care unite is equipped with intracranial pressure monitoring and transcranial doppler in 3 sets each to provide monitoring for instantaneous response for critical neurological patients. We not only pay attention to clinical services for publics, but also emphasize the importance of training courses on clinical and basic sciences for residents. To provide adequate training, case discussions and journal club were held weekly. Moreover, the meetings with experts in the fields of neurology, radiology, pathology, and basic medical science are also held routinely. There are one professor, one assistant professor and an instructor in this department. Several our staffs also are relatively well funded in research. Numerous research SCI-papers have been published during the past years. We also promote collaboration with experts within the nation and do strong efforts for international research cooperation as well.