The Department of General Surgery of Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, was founded in 1952, which is the earlier medical school and department in China to establish the Department of General Surgery. The department was founded by Lan Xichun, Dong Fangzhong, Zhou Xigeng and other outstanding surgeons of the old generation, and grew under the cultivation of Kwong Yiu-Lin, Zhu Ren-Wei, Shi Wei-Jin, Wang Ping-Zhi, Chen Zhi-Ping, Zhang Bo-Gen and other predecessors, and then developed under the leadership of Wu Zhi-Yong and Director Cao Hui, and has made leapfrog progress and development especially during the period of the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" and the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan". "In 2013, the Department of General Surgery completed the sub-specialty restructuring and the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery was formally established, which marks a solid step on the way of specialization, deepening, refining and strengthening. At present, the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery of Renji is a National Clinical Key Specialty of the Ministry of Health, the Laparoscopic Surgery Training Base of Chinese Physicians' Association, and the Colorectal Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Centre of Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine.

The department has 3 wards in the east, west and south hospitals, with 200 official beds (94 in the east hospital, 76 in the west hospital and 30 in the south hospital), 56 gastrointestinal surgeons (55 doctors + 1 secretary of gastrointestinal surgery), of which 26 have senior titles and 20 have intermediate titles; 48 have doctoral degrees and 7 have master's degrees, constituting a professional team with a reasonable academic structure, a complete talent echelon and rich clinical experience. The number of outpatient and emergency treatment will be 160,000 in 2021 and 130,000 in 2022, and nearly 10,000 surgeries of various types will be completed, with the proportion of third- and fourth-level surgeries accounting for the majority, of which more than 3,500 surgeries for gastrointestinal malignant tumors will be performed, ranking among the forefront in Shanghai. Meanwhile, the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery of Renji has established a standardized MDT diagnosis and treatment system earlier in China, formed an integrated service platform and full management system integrating prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of tumors, and served patients with difficult and complex gastrointestinal tumors from all over the country every year, which has formed influence and brand effect.

The Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery of Renji consists of the speciality group of gastrointestinal diseases, the specialty group of colorectal and anal diseases, and the specialty group of portal hypertension. Gastrointestinal Diseases Specialty Group takes the standardization, normalization, minimally invasive individualized comprehensive diagnosis and treatment of gastric cancer and gastrointestinal mesenchymal tumors as the highlight, and minimally invasive treatment of gastrointestinal tumors, rational diagnosis and treatment of small intestinal diseases, diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal acute abdominal diseases as well as traditional and minimally invasive treatments of appendicitis and hernia as the specialty features; Colorectal & Anal Diseases Specialty Group treats colorectal tumors with the advanced concept of combining minimally invasive and traditional treatments, and fiberoptic colonoscopy. The colorectal and anal specialty group takes the treatment of colorectal tumors with advanced concepts of combining minimally invasive and traditional, the treatment of intestinal polyps, stenting of intestinal obstruction, and the diagnosis and treatment of colorectal inflammatory diseases and anal functional diseases as its specialty; the treatment of portal hypertension takes the pericardial vascular dissection, splenic and renal vein shunt, and combined surgery as its specialty. In recent years, the department has actively promoted the development of minimally invasive surgery for gastrointestinal tumors, of which laparoscopic and robotic surgeries account for about 40%, which is the leading position in the city. The department has become an important collaborator of the China Laparoscopic Gastrointestinal Surgery Study Group (CLASS), and was invited to participate in the whole series of CLASS multicenter prospective randomized clinical studies, and has hosted the first domestic multicenter clinical study (CLASS) for gastrointestinal mesenchymal stromal tumors as a leading unit. As the lead unit, we hosted the first domestic laparoscopic clinical study of gastrointestinal mesenchymal tumor surgery (CLASS-06). Meanwhile, as the early clinical center in China to carry out gastric function preservation surgery, it has accumulated the largest number of LAPPG surgery cases and clinical database in China; in addition, the clinical diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal mesenchymal stromal tumor is also rich in characteristics and brand effect, and it has become a highly influential and reputable center for the diagnosis and treatment of GIST in China, and its research and treatment experience have been invited to the International Conference on Gastric Cancer, the World Congress of Endoscopic Surgery, the Annual Meeting of the Japan-Korea Society of Gastric Cancer and the China-Japan-Korea Society of Gastric Cancer. The research and treatment experiences have been invited to report in the International Gastric Cancer Congress, World Congress of Endoscopic Surgery, Japan-Korea Gastric Cancer Society Annual Meeting and China-Japan-Korea Gastric Cancer Laparoscopy Joint Meeting. For colorectal cancer surgery, the proportion of minimally invasive laparoscopy has exceeded 60%, and since the implementation of the first da Vinci robot-assisted combined resection of colorectal cancer and metastases in 2014, more than 300 da Vinci robotic surgeries have been completed so far, which is among the top in Shanghai; as the first MDT clinic in the hospital since 2015, the unremitting efforts of members of the MDT for colorectal cancer have greatly increased the number of The proportion of neoadjuvant radiotherapy for low rectal cancer has been increased, and the postoperative local recurrence rate has been significantly reduced, with a significant improvement in therapeutic efficacy; In 2017, transanal rectal cancer radical surgery (TaTME) combined with da Vinci robotics was carried out for treating patients with ultra-low rectal cancer, which perfectly combines tumor radicality with anus-preserving feasibility, and represents the highest level and development trend of the current rectal cancer surgeries. At the same time, the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery of Renji has also been invited to participate in a number of multi-center prospective randomized controlled studies on laparoscopic low rectal cancer surgery, laparoscopic rectal cancer surgical access and laparoscopic right hemicolonic cancer clearance scope in China.

Against the background of increasingly frequent international exchanges, the department has maintained long-term and friendly cooperative relationships with Cleveland Medical Center (USA), University of Heidelberg (Germany), University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany), University of Verona (Italy), Seoul National University Hospital (South Korea), National Cancer Center (Tokyo, Japan), and Tohoku University Hospital (Japan), and has sent nearly 20 outstanding young physicians to these international first-class medical centers for more than one year of training or clinical special techniques in the past five years. In the past five years, nearly 20 outstanding young physicians have been sent to these international top medical centers for more than one year's training or learning of special clinical techniques.

Cultivation and reserve of talents is the foundation of sustainable development of the discipline, and it has been the historical tradition of Renji Gastrointestinal Surgery Department to focus on talent echelon construction. In recent years, the department has been awarded with a number of talent cultivation projects, including the Shanghai Leading Talent, Shanghai Outstanding Academic Leader, Shanghai's 2nd Renxin Healer - Outstanding General Surgery Physician Award, the title of "Famous Doctors of China - Excellence in Building". -The department has been awarded a number of talent training projects, including Shanghai Leading Talent, Shanghai Outstanding Academic Leader, Shanghai Second Outstanding General Surgery Specialist Award, "Famous Doctor of the Nation", "Excellence in Establishment", "Teaching and Educating" Award of Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai Municipal Health Planning Commission's Hundred Talent Plan, Shanghai Young Physician Training Subsidy Plan, and the National Hundred Young Surgeons' Talent Plan. With the excellent research platforms of Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and Renji Hospital, and the strong support of Shanghai Institute of Oncology and Shanghai Institute of Immunology, the basic translational research and clinical diagnosis and treatment team of Gastrointestinal Surgery have achieved a good match and achieved excellent scientific research results. Since 2013, the department has applied for 27 National Natural Science Funds, Municipal Science and Technology Commission Funds, Health and Planning Commission Funds, Shenkang Three-Year Action Plan and other research projects at all levels, and has published nearly 200 SCI papers. Clinical research achievements have won the second prize of National Scientific and Technological Progress, the third prize of China Medical Science and Technology Prize, the third prize of Shanghai Municipal Scientific and Technological Progress, the second prize of Shanghai Medical Science and Technology Prize, and the first prize of Shanghai Combined Science and Technology of Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine.

The Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery of Renji is now the postdoctoral, doctoral and master's point of Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, with three doctoral supervisors and seven master's supervisors, and has trained more than 30 doctoral and master's degree holders and many postgraduate students in recent years. As the main discipline of the Department of Surgery of Renji Clinical Medical College, the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery is responsible for the teaching of Surgery to undergraduate students of clinical medicine. Meanwhile, the department is also a key professional base for national standardized training of residents and a national standardized training base for specialists.

The Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery of Renji will always uphold the professional belief of "benevolence and benevolence for the world", take the diagnosis and treatment of major and difficult clinical diseases as the starting point, adhere to the disciplinary construction concepts of standardization, normalization, refinement, minimally invasive and synthesis, and be oriented to the clinical translational research by strengthening the construction of talent echelons, cultivating disciplinary leaders, and establishing a comprehensive treatment model and clinical pathway of multidisciplinary. By strengthening the construction of talent echelon, cultivating leading talents in the discipline, establishing multi-disciplinary comprehensive treatment mode and clinical pathway, maintaining and developing the leading position of gastrointestinal specialty in China, basing on Shanghai, radiating to the whole country and heading towards the international market, the goal is to become a first-class clinical diagnostic and treatment center with distinctive professional characteristics, first-rate quality of medical care, and coordinated development of medical education and research.