West China Hospital, Sichuan University—Chengdu, China

Center description: 

West China Hospital (WCH) is one of the largest single-site hospitals in the world and a leading medical center of West China, treating complicated and severe cases. The hospital has 6,000 beds and has more than 7,800 medical staff working among 38 clinical departments and 16 non-clinical and laboratory departments. Each year, more than 5.5 million patients visited the outpatient department, 233,000 patients were discharged from inpatient departments, and more than 132,900 operations were performed. Since 2009, the hospital has ranked second on the China Best Hospital List each year.

Most frequent pathologies

Cervical spondylotic myelopathy, occipitocervical deformity, spinal trauma, adolesent idiopathic scoliosis, adult spinal deformity (scoliosis or kyphosis), degenerative lumbar disease, spinal tuberculosis 

Most frequent surgical procedures

C3-7 CDR, C3-7 ACDF or ACCF, C3-7 expansive open-door laminoplasty, T12-L5 ACF (anterior corpectomy and fusion), L4-S1 TLIF, T1-L5 PSO+PF, L4-S1 endoscopic discectomy

Procedures

Number of cases per year: More than 2,600 patients
Number of instrumented cases per year: 2,100

Total estimated number of procedures:

Types of fellowships

• National fellowship
• Regional and international fellowship
• Short-term fellowships (2 weeks to 6 months)
• Long-term fellowships (6 to 12 months)
• Fellow can scrub-in and assist scrubbed in

Average number of surgeries per week in the OR for the fellow: 6 – 10