The Department of Nephrology is a well-known scientific research, teaching and training base for medical personnel of kidney disease specialty, which was established in the early 1990s under the guidance of Professor Weiru Zheng, a nationally renowned nephrologist and toxicology expert, and Professor Yunzhen Chen, an expert on cardiovascular disease from Shanghai Medical University. The department obtained approval for granting the master degree of internal medicine in 1995 and the doctor degree of internal medicine (nephrology) in 2000. It was listed in the construction project of key medical discipline (nephrology) of Chongqing in 2009. In 2010, it was approved as the Hemodialysis Quality Control Center and the blood purification specialist nurse training base in Chongqing. It was approved to be the national county hospital blood purification training base in 2014, and the key clinical specialty construction project in Chongqing in 2016. In 2017, it became the "National Hemodialysis Management Demonstration Center" certified by the Chinese Society of Nephrology. In February 2018, it was awarded the title of "Improving Medical Service Quality Service Post" by the National Health Commission, which is the only unit in the field of hemodialysis in China to win this honor. In the same year, it was approved as a clinical key specialty (nephrology) in Chongqing, and led the establishment of Bayu Kidney Disease Specialty Alliance as the presidential unit. In 2022, it was approved to be the first batch of demonstration center for standardized diagnosis and treatment of hemoperfusion in China and the blood purification technology training base of Chongqing Health Commission.
The department of nephrology consists of inpatient wards, blood purification centers, and outpatient departments, among which the inpatient ward has 100 beds. In the early 1970s, the department carried out renal biopsy in China under the guidance of Professor Weiru Zheng, and was one of the earliest institutions to carry out clinical and pathological research on renal diseases in China. In recent years, the department standardized new immunotherapy for glomerular diseases, and strengthened the management of difficult and critical renal diseases and chronic kidney disease. The diagnosis and treatment of kidney diseases have reached the advanced level in China.
The Department is currently one of the largest hemodialysis centers in China. There are two dialysis centers in the department: one in the Main Campus and the other is in the first branch of the hospital, equipped with advanced international brands of hemodialysis machines and water treatment systems. The center performs MDT integrated management of hemodialysis vascular access and CKD-MBD, and have three subspecialties, including hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, and CRRT.
Hemodialysis vascular access subspecialty is the most distinctive and influential subspecialty, which conducts more than 3100 surgeries per year, and the number of ambulatory surgery has exceeded 1800 per year. It is one of the largest and most influential vascular access diagnosis and treatment centers and training bases in China. Its vascular access interventional treatment ranks the advanced level in the world. It reported the "ultrasound-guided interventional revascularized of fistula occluded for 13 years" for the first time in the world, and proposed the "Mother-child" technique for recanalization of chronic central venous occlusive disease for the first time. It also initiated the writing of the first Chinese version of the “Expert recommendation on interventional therapy for central venous disease related to hemodialysis access”.
The department is one of the earliest institutions to conduct CRRT for the rescue of critically ill patients in China. In addition to traditional CRRT, double plasma molecular adsorption system, double filtration plasmapheresis, artificial liver and other technologies, the department also carried out a number of new technologies including in vitro carbon dioxide removal technology, endotoxin adsorption in sepsis, inflammatory mediators/cytokines adsorption, plasma immunoadsorption. It provides a blood purification and organ support platform for critically ill patients, which greatly improves the prognosis of patients.
At present, the department has physicians who are committee members of the national associations of nephrology, leader of the branch group, and president and vice president of the provincial associations of nephrology. The department has undertaken more than ten National Natural Science Foundation of China and provincial scientific research projects. The main scientific research areas include glucose and lipid metabolism disorders in renal disease, prevention and management of chronic kidney disease complications (including vascular access). Nearly 100 papers have been published in SCI, more than 10 utility model patents were approved, and more than 10 monographs were edited or participated. It won the Hospital Science and Technology Innovation Award of China Hospital Association in 2023, the first prize of blood Purification Technology application and academic promotion Project and the second prize of complication diagnosis and treatment technology of Chongqing Medical Association in 2022 and 2023.
The department participants in the promotion of hemodialysis technology and personnel training in Chongqing. It has successively undertaken the appropriate technology promotion project of Chongqing Municipal Health Commission, the training of hemodialysis specialist doctors (technicians) in Chongqing Medical Association, and the training of hemodialysis specialist nurses in Chongqing. The vascular access team took the lead in creating a "multi-model, multi-platform and multi-dimension" technology promotion and training system in China, and built a national "training-examination-certification" platform for vascular access diagnosis and treatment technology to ensure the standardization and homogeneity of technology promotion. At present, the team has trained more than 400 doctors and nurses all over the country, and has made wonderful speeches in more than 300 domestic and foreign academic conferences.