Nephrology
Overview
The Department of Nephrology is an integrated medical, teaching and research center integrating clinical diagnosis and treatment of renal diseases, blood purification, theoretical and practical teaching as well as clinical scientific research. It is a Jiangsu Provincial Key Clinical Specialty, Wuxi Municipal Key Clinical Specialty, master training base of internal medicine of Jiangnan University, national resident training base for internal medicine (nephrology), and a member unit of the Chronic Kidney Disease Alliance. The department consists of four subspecialty centers: Chronic Kidney Disease Diagnosis & Treatment Center, Blood Purification Center, Peritoneal Dialysis Center and Vascular Access Center. General outpatient clinics, specialist clinics, nephritis clinics, hemodialysis clinics, peritoneal dialysis clinics and vascular access clinics are available at both north and south campuses, with an annual outpatient volume of 80,000 visits. A total of 65 inpatient beds are available across the two campuses, with over 2,800 discharged patients, more than 800 surgical operations and over 300 renal biopsies performed annually. The Blood Purification Center is equipped with 100 blood purification devices, 4 CRRT machines, 2 APD machines, 1 body composition analyzer, 1 infrared fistula maintenance instrument, 1 SonoSite high-resolution ultrasound scanner and 1 Konica Minolta portable ultrasound device. At present, the department has 2 master supervisors, including 5 chief physicians, 6 associate chief physicians and 8 attending & resident physicians. Among the staff, there are 1 postdoctoral researcher, 4 doctors and 13 masters degree holders.
Treatment Scope
1. Diagnosis and treatment of proteinuria, hematuria, hypertension and renal insufficiency caused by various causes; as well as various glomerulonephritis, nephrotic syndrome, membranous nephropathy, IgA nephropathy, diabetic nephropathy, Henoch-Schönlein purpura nephritis, lupus nephritis, systemic vasculitis, interstitial nephritis and other intractable renal diseases.
2. Management of acute and chronic renal failure of diverse etiologies and their associated complications.
3. Diagnosis and treatment of common and refractory urinary tract infections.
4. Treatment of hemodialysis-related complications; implementation of various blood purification therapies including hemodialysis, hemofiltration, hemoperfusion and plasma exchange.
5. Treatment of peritoneal dialysis complications and automated peritoneal dialysis therapy.
6. Performance of surgical procedures such as renal biopsy, autologous arteriovenous fistula creation, artificial vascular arteriovenous fistula implantation, placement of long-term hemodialysis catheters and peritoneal dialysis catheters, together with management of their common complications.
Technical advantages
Nephrology routinely carries out the following therapeutic techniques: Ultrasound-guided renal biopsy; treatment with various immunosuppressants and biological agents; fecal microbiota transplantation for refractory urinary tract infections in cooperation with the Microecology Research Center; multiple blood purification modalities including hemodialysis, hemodiafiltration, hemoperfusion, plasma exchange, CRRT, manual and automated peritoneal dialysis; autologous arteriovenous fistulization and artificial vascular arteriovenous fistula surgery.
It also performs ultrasound-guided percutaneous peritoneal dialysis catheter insertion, open peritoneal dialysis catheter implantation and laparoscopic peritoneal dialysis catheter placement. Additionally, it conducts ultrasound and DSA-guided balloon angioplasty for arteriovenous fistula stenosis, fistula thrombectomy, DSA-guided long-term hemodialysis catheter placement, as well as balloon dilation and stent implantation for innominate vein and superior vena cava stenosis.
Annually, over 200 renal biopsies, more than 800 various surgical operations and over 40,000 sessions of blood purification treatment are completed. Its diagnostic and therapeutic technologies have reached the advanced domestic level.
Research achievements
In the past three years, the department has won multiple Jiangsu Provincial New Technology Introduction Awards and undertaken numerous research projects including programs supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, projects from Wuxi Science and Technology Bureau, Wuxi Municipal Health Commission, as well as one educational reform project of Nantong University. One staff member has been selected as Wuxi Outstanding Young and Middle-aged Medical Talent, one as reserve outstanding talent, and three as young outstanding talents under the hospital's talent training program. More than 20 representative papers have been published in internationally renowned journals. In terms of teaching, its faculty have been awarded the title of Best Clinical Preceptor of National Standardized Residency Training Base, the First Prize in the Teacher Group of National Residency Training Clinical Skills Competition, and Excellent Curriculum Ideological and Political Teaching Case of the second batch issued by Nantong University.