Department of Gastroenterology is the first professional department in northwest China to carry out diagnosis and treatment of digestive diseases independently. Through unremitting efforts of several generations, Department of Gastroenterology has become a professional team with excellent medical technology,well-structured teaching faculty, and strong scientific research strength.

There are 77 employees in Department of Gastroenterology, among which 8 are professors, 3 are associate professors, 23 are attending doctors and resident physicians. There are 2 doctoral supervisors and 7 master supervisors. At present, the department has 96 beds, two medical units and one endoscopy center. We are equipped with various kinds of advanced endoscopies, such as Olympus 290 gastroscopy, colonoscopy, duodenoscopy, enteroscopy, endoscopic ultrasonography, magnifying endoscopy, capsule endoscopy, magnetron capsule endoscopy, narrow-band imaging (NBI), etc. The number of outpatients and inpatients are more than 110,000 and 3,000 per year respectively, and the number of patients receiving endoscopic diagnosis and treatment is about 1,200 per year. At present, gastroenterology has formed obvious advantages and distinctive features in the digestive endoscopic diagnosis and treatment, intravascular interventional therapy, the prevention and treatment of chronic liver diseases, chronic gastrointestinal diseases and the diagnosis and treatment of digestive system tumors.

Digestive endoscopic diagnosis and treatment technology is a major advantage of the Department. Endoscopic ultrasonography, endoscopic staining endoscopy and amplifying technology, as well as NBI have improved the accuracy of the early diagnosis of gastrointestinal cancer significantly. Endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) and endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) are safe and minimally invasive treatment in patients with early carcinoma. Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and endoscopic cholangiotomy for stone removal and stent placement are performed routinely. In recent years, many new techniques of endoscopic diagnosis and treatment have been carried out, such as ultrasound endoscopy (EUS) diagnosis and treatment, ERAT, etc. The painless gastroenteroscopy technique allows the patient to complete gastroenteroscopy easily in a completely painless state. Intelligent capsule endoscopy and enteroscopy overcome the blind area of traditional digestive tract examination, so that intestinal diseases are no longer difficult to be diagnosed.

Intravascular interventional therapy is another major therapeutic feature in gastroenterology. In 1994, professor Xue Hui was the first to carry out transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) and Budd-Chiari syndrome endovascular intervention for cirrhotic portal hypertension in national digestive community. Up to now, more than 1,500 cases have been completed with TIPS (including TIPS for surgically interrupted surgery, liver cancer combined with portal hypertension, etc.), of which the largest age is 82 years old, and the longest survival time has exceeded 20 years. We keep ranking first in northwest provincial hospital, and are among the best in the field of the national digestive internal medicine. The outstanding achievements in this respect have won many honors such as the Shaanxi Provincial Government Science and Technology Progress Award and the Shaanxi Youth Science and Technology Award. More than 100 cases of complicated percutaneous intravascular interventional therapy have been reported. The Department has also carried out intravascular interventional therapy for a variety of gastrointestinal tumors, such as liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, cardiac cancer and gastric cancer, and has completed more than 3,000 cases of intravascular chemotherapy drug perfusion and embolization. In addition, HVPG pressure gradient measurement, interventional thrombolytic therapy for portal vein thrombosis, interventional diagnosis for gastrointestinal bleeding and embolization for hemostasis, percutaneous transhepatic venous embolization (PTVE), percutaneous intrahepatic biliary drainage and biliary stent placement were routinely performed. Digestive intervention continued to expand and innovate, and successively carried out reverse TIPS stent remodelling under ultrasound guidance for the first case in China, and precision TIPS puncture assisted by 3D printing for the first case in China. In addition, we attach great importance to team building, cultivate new backbone force, and jointly open a new chapter of digestion and intervention.

In addition, Department of Gastroenterology has well-structured teaching faculty and strong scientific research strength. So far, we have undertaken more than 30 national and provincial scientific research projects, and won 6 provincial prizes for progress in science and technology. Over 100 papers have been published in the past five years, of which more than 20 have been included in SCI. Our staff participated in the compilation of more than 20 monographs as chief editors or coeditors, and many doctors were invited as editors of professional journals and magazines at home and abroad. The research achievements obtained three national invention patents.