Cerebrovascular Disease Specialty
Tianjin Huanhu Hospital is supported by a National Demonstration Advanced Stroke Center and serves as a leading center for the prevention and treatment of cerebrovascular diseases in Tianjin. The hospital’s Comprehensive Diagnosis and Treatment of Cerebrovascular Diseases and Brain Science Program (Brain-Computer Interface) has also been approved as a National Key Clinical Specialty Development Project. The specialty integrates multidisciplinary expertise across neurology, neurosurgery, neurocritical care, rehabilitation medicine, medical imaging, emergency medicine, and neurointervention. Our hospital can provide standardized, individualized, and comprehensive “one-stop” care for patients with a acute or chronic, and complex cerebrovascular diseases. Its major clinical subspecialties and areas of expertise include the following:
Ⅰ. Intravenous Thrombolysis
The Intravenous Thrombolysis Subspecialty at Tianjin Huanhu Hospital is a major clinical focus of the hospital. It is established as a large-scale, comprehensive center for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke (AIS).
Clinical Expertise and Scale
As one of the earliest medical institutions in China to systematically implement intravenous thrombolysis for acute ischemic stroke, Tianjin Huanhu Hospital has rich clinical experience in thrombolysis. In terms of larger number of patients volume and those receiving intravenous thrombolysis annually, monthly and daily, the hospital has always been the top stroke centers in China.
As a designated hospital in the Tianjin Stroke Emergency Map network, the hospital plays an important role in regional stroke care, clinical quality control, and professional training. The team has participated in and led multicenter clinical studies, which provide clinical evidence to the development and optimization of intravenous thrombolysis for acute ischemic stroke.
Clinical Features and Strengths
The subspecialty has established a standardized stroke care pathway encompassing prehospital emergency care, rapid in-hospital assessment, intravenous thrombolysis, post-treatment monitoring, and rehabilitation follow-up. The stroke fast-track pathway has largely shortened the door-to-needle time (DNT), and help to make individualized therapeutic decision to ensure standardized and safe treatment for incorporated cases. A multidisciplinary collaborative mechanism has been established among the departments of neurology, neurosurgery, emergency medicine, medical imaging, and neurointervention.
The hospital maintains a comprehensive database and quality-control system for thrombolysis cases, which enables systematic tracking or analysis of the treatment processes and clinical outcomes. Furthermore, this system could improves the treatment quality and patient safety, by regular quality assessments, multidisciplinary case discussions, technical training, and academic exchanges.
Development
The subspecialty is supported by an experienced clinical team with a strong foundation in neurology and extensive expertise in acute stroke management. Regular professional training and academic exchanges help maintain high standards of clinical practice.
The program will continue to optimize diagnostic and treatment process, to explore the appropriate expansion of thrombolysis based on emerging clinical evidence, and enable more patients with acute ischemic stroke to benefit from timely, standardized, and individualized reperfusion therapy, with the ultimate goal of reducing stroke-related disability and mortality.
Ⅱ. Chronic Cerebrovascular Occlusion
Multidisciplinary Team
The Chronic Cerebrovascular Occlusion Subspecialty is supported by the hospital’s National Advanced Stroke Center and multidisciplinary platform for the comprehensive management of cerebrovascular diseases.
The program integrates the hospital’s expertise in cerebrovascular medicine and brings together specialists in cerebrovascular neurosurgery, neurointervention, neurology, cognitive disorder diagnosis and treatment, medical imaging, and brain function assessment , providing comprehensive and specialized care for patients with chronic cerebral arterial occlusive disease.
“One-Stop” Diagnostic and Treatment Model
The subspecialty has developed an innovative “one-stop” multidisciplinary care model. Within an integrated clinical pathway, patients can undergo comprehensive assessment and receive individualized treatment recommendations encompassing optimized medical management, endovascular recanalization, hybrid recanalization, and evaluation for cerebral revascularization/bypass surgery.
This integrated approach minimizes the need for patients to move repeatedly between different departments and facilitates individualized, precise, and standardized treatment, together with structured long-term follow-up.
Through comprehensive assessment of vascular anatomy, cerebral perfusion, collateral circulation, clinical manifestations, and other relevant factors, the multidisciplinary team develops individualized management strategies for patients with chronic cerebral artery occlusion.
III. Intracerebral Hemorrhage
As a core specialty branch of the cerebrovascular disease discipline in our hospital, the intracerebral hemorrhage subspecialty delivers full-chain standardized diagnosis and treatment for primary and secondary intracerebral hemorrhage, including precise diagnosis, acute emergency treatment, refined perioperative management, long-term neurological rehabilitation and secondary prevention. It serves as a key backbone for regional emergency and critical care of hemorrhagic stroke.
(I) Core Diagnosis & Treatment Technologies and Featured Advantages
Relying on the advanced equipment and mature cerebrovascular disease technical system, the subspecialty has built four core strengths: rapid emergency response, minimally invasive and precise treatment, meticulous critical care, and whole-course rehabilitation and prevention, forming a standardized and systematic treatment framework. Its core technologies include:
1. Leveraging the green channel of the Comprehensive Stroke Center to realize ultra-early rapid assessment, precise diagnosis and timely intervention for intracerebral hemorrhage, maximizing the therapeutic time window;
2. Proficiently performing minimally invasive and precise surgical treatment for various types of intracerebral hemorrhage. It achieves efficient hematoma evacuation with minimal trauma to reduce surgical injury and improve long-term prognosis;
3. Supported by a professional neurocritical care system, multidisciplinary refined monitoring is provided for critically ill patients with intracerebral hemorrhage to comprehensively prevent and manage severe complications such as intracranial hypertension, infection and vasospasm, safeguarding critical patient safety;
4. Adopting an integrated model of "treatment – rehabilitation – prevention". Individualized rehabilitation intervention and standardized secondary prevention are implemented to effectively improve the recovery of neurological function and reduce disease recurrence.
(II) Disciplinary Team and Collaboration Model
The intracerebral hemorrhage subspecialty has established an integrated MDT (Multidisciplinary Team) covering neurology, neurosurgery, emergency medicine, neurocritical care, rehabilitation medicine, medical imaging, clinical laboratory and specialized nursing. It has accumulated abundant and mature clinical experience in the comprehensive management of critical intracerebral hemorrhage, complex hemorrhage at special sites and refractory recurrent hemorrhage, with regional leading treatment capacity.
The discipline has innovatively launched a special taskforce mechanism for intracerebral hemorrhage, breaking traditional departmental barriers. Seamless connection and rapid linkage are achieved among emergency admission, imaging evaluation, laboratory screening, operating room.