Everything awakens with spring, and spring rain beautifies the early heart. On 15-16 March 2025, the 4th Training Course on "Spinal Infection and Minimally Invasive Spinal Treatment" was successfully held, hosted by the Bone Tuberculosis Prevention and Control Committee of Shandong Anti-Tuberculosis Association and conducted by the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery (Spinal Infection/Osteoarthritis) of Shandong Provincial Public Health Clinical Center. The "Spinal Infection and Minimally Invasive Spine Diagnosis and Treatment Training Course" was successfully held with more than 40 participants from Hubei, Hebei, Liaoning, Shandong and other parts of the country, providing the trainees with the latest technology and clinical experience, showing that the level of spinal infection and minimally invasive spine diagnosis and treatment of the department has reached the leading level in China.
Under the leadership of Director Tan Hongdong, the leading orthopaedic surgeon of the hospital, three "Minimally Invasive Spine Diagnosis and Treatment Training Courses" and one "Percutaneous Pedicle Screw Seminar" have been successfully held, providing a learning and communication platform for the majority of orthopaedic colleagues. This training course will continue to adhere to the hospital's concept of discipline construction of "the top of the sky and the ground, two wings flying together", "ground" rooted in the grassroots, with scientific research and transformation, education and training as the "two wings" to provide impetus for the development of the discipline. The training course focused on spinal infections, spinal cord infections and spinal cord infections. With the theme of Spinal Infection and Spinal Minimally Invasive, this training course covered a variety of mainstream minimally invasive techniques such as VBE technology (V-shape Bichannel Endoscopy ), UBE technology, MED technology, intervertebral foramenoscopy, etc. and provided a two-day academic feast on spinal infection and spinal minimally invasive for more than 40 orthopaedic colleagues from all over the country. This training course, through the theoretical lectures of domestic famous experts, on-site observation, sample practice, case discussion and other content outputs, comprehensively improved the surgical techniques and theoretical foundation of the trainees.
On the first day of the course, Director Tan Hongdong, the organiser of the course, welcomed all the trainees who had travelled from far away and gave excellent lectures on the minimally invasive diagnostic and therapeutic science of lumbar disc herniation and the two-way and two-step methods of VBE-TLIF. The Director of Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery, Director Han Dapeng, and the Director of Spinal Infection / Bone & Joint Surgery, Director Xu Liang, had an in-depth discussion with the trainees on CT-guided endoscopic techniques and spinal puncture techniques respectively.
To help the trainees understand what they had learned, the course also included an extensive hands-on session. Under the guidance of experts, trainees practised various minimally invasive spine surgery techniques on their own. The one-on-one hands-on training significantly improved the trainees' practical skills.
On the second day of the training course, the executive chairman of the training course, Director Tan Hongdong, academic director of the orthopaedic department of Shandong Provincial Public Health Clinical Centre, invited Professor Guo Xiaodong, a well-known spine expert in China, and Professor Sun Jianmin, special professor of Shandong Provincial Public Health Clinical Centre, the honorary chairman of the conference, as lecturers. Professor Guo Xiaodong firstly appreciated our work on spinal infections and was amazed by the scale, diagnostic and treatment level and surgical skills of spinal infections in our department. Professor Guo Xiaodong reviewed the diagnosis and treatment of spinal cord fascial compartment syndrome and children's lower back paralysis under his own leadership, and presented creative theories on precision and minimally invasive spinal cord injuries belonging to Chinese scholars; Professor Sun Jianmin gave a lecture on the surgical treatment of neurofibromatosis type scoliosis, which enabled the participants to have a deeper understanding of the diagnosis and treatment of neurofibromatosis type scoliosis; Professor Tan Hongdong, Executive Chairman of the Conference, gave a lecture on the treatment and management of neurofibromatosis type scoliosis, which was very useful for the participants. Professor Tan Hongdong, Executive Chairman of this congress, will explain the diagnosis and treatment of primary spinal infections in our department and the achievements of our department in spinal infections. Professor Liu Xiaoyang from Shandong Provincial Hospital will give trainees a detailed explanation of the advantages of endoscopic treatment of lumbar disc herniation, indications, surgical complications and surgical techniques; Professor Wang Tao from Dongying People's Hospital will give trainees a detailed explanation of the development of UBE techniques and his clinical experience. Professor Wang Tao from Dongying People's Hospital gave a wonderful lecture on the development of UBE technology and his clinical experience; Professor Peng Tao from Qingdao Branch of Shandong Province Public Health Clinical Centre shared his own case of spinal infection caused by fungus.
After the meeting, Professor Sun Jianmin, the Honorary Chairman of this conference, signed and presented books, and Professor Tan Hongdong presented training certificates to the trainees.
Director Tan Hongdong said that as the first VBE (V-shape Bichannel Endoscopy ) team in Shandong Province, the combination of "minimally invasive spine" and "spinal infection" has solved the pain of more and more patients. We also thank you for your attention and support to the Orthopaedic Department of Shandong Provincial Public Health Clinical Centre, and hope that all orthopaedic colleagues will learn from this meeting and apply what they have learned in their work for the benefit of patients.