Most prolific brain expert save lives of thousands

By Wang Zhuoqiong (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-01-10 07:44

Dubbed the pioneer of Chinese neurosurgery, 83-year-old Wang Zhongcheng, director of the Beijing Neurosurgical Institute, has conducted more brain surgeries than any doctor in the world - more than 10,000.

Wang Zhongcheng, winner of China's 2008 State Top Scientific and Technological Awards, delivers a speech during the awarding ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing, January 9, 2009. [Xinhua]

He is the initiator of microneurosurgery in China, and through the advancement in microsurgical skills led by his research team, neurosurgical practices in China have reached a world-class level.

A graduate of Peking University Medical School in 1950, and a surgeon during the Korean War (1950-53), Wang compiled the monograph Cerebral Angiography. The publication significantly reduced the risk in diagnostic technique in this field.

The treatment of brainstem tumors was once a no-go zone in the neurosurgical field (the brainstem, roughly the size of the human thumb, functions like a switchboard for the brain). But since 1980, Wang has conducted 800 operations on brainstem tumors, with a mortality rate of less than 1 percent, among the best rates in the world.

One of the most experienced specialist in the world in cerebral vascular malformation therapy, he has also performed 1,000 intracranial aneurysm surgeries.

He has operated on about 300 skull base tumors, with a zero mortality rate, between 1995 and 2007.

In 2001, he became the first Chinese to win the Supreme Neurosurgery Award, granted by the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies.

"His achievement comes from his passion and care for his patients," said Zhang Yazhuo, deputy director of Beijing Neurosurgical Institute.

"To collect more samples and records, he exposed himself to a large amount of radiation, which greatly reduced the number of his leukocyte and harmed his own health," Zhang said.

Wang's dedication and skill have won acclaim from his patients.

Fan Yong, who was diagnosed with a 22-cm tumor from his brainstem to his spine in 1995, when he was 19, was saved after a 12-hour surgery conducted by Wang.

Currently in good condition and the proud father of a 4-year-old child, Fan said: "Wang pulled me back from death."

According to Chinese Neurosurgical Society statistics, about 6,000 qualified neurosurgeons were practicing in China in 2006. Of them, about one third were Wang's students.

Wang sits at his office in the outpatient section of Tiantan Hospital in Beijing from 9 am to 4 pm, where he sees the most complicated cases in the country.

"Most patients who come to me are severely ill," Wang said.

"I will keep seeing patients until the day I can't move."