The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University recently established an organ transplant center to carry out liver, heart, kidney and pancreas transplants – and the surgeons are expected to perform about 100 such operations this year, according to Qingdao Daily.

Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University

The hospital invited Professor Zang Jinyun - an expert in liver transplants who was previously deputy director of the Organ Transplant Research Institute of the General Hospital of the Chinese People’s Armed Police Forces and has performed a total of 1,500 liver transplants – to establish the center. Zang and his colleagues will remain in the center for the long-term, and they will treat patients from around the country.

The new team of surgeons at the center includes six domestic experts from Beijing and Jinan, three Chinese nationals who have recently completed their studies abroad and are also experts in organ transplants - in addition to 30 experts who already work at the hospital.

Wang Dong, who specializes in heart transplants at Shandong Qianfoshan Hospital in Jinan and has performed 15 such operations, is one of the domestic experts who is expected to join the new center. No heart transplants have ever been performed in Qingdao, and the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University is now only the second hospital in Shandong province that can carry out such operations.

The Qingdao Navy 401 Hospital also performs organ transplants – but not heart transplants. Before the establishment of the center, the Affiliated Hospital carried out about 40 kidney transplants but only about five liver transplants every year, and the 401 Hospital performs about 30 kidney transplants and about 15 liver transplants every year.