A renowned neurosurgeon saves lives and trains young doctors in Shanghai
Takanori Fukushima in front of an operating room where he was doing a surgery at the Punan Hospital
Takanori Fukushima wields a scalpel with the mastery of a modern-day samurai. At Shanghai Punan Hospital in Pudong, his consummate surgical skills have saved the lives of many patients suffering brain tumors and other neurological diseases.
Fukushima, 76, is a chief adviser and invited medical expert at the hospital, where he has performed more than 20 difficult brain surgeries and helped train young doctors.
The world-renowned neurosurgeon and creator of the “keyhole surgery” technique has done 24,000 brain tumor surgeries in his long career and 12,000 skull base surgeries. Keyhole surgery involves operating through a dime-sized whole in the skull, guided by a microscope.
He was also instrumental in founding the Best Doctors Club, a medical expertise group based at Punan Hospital. The club, whose membership now counts 20 medical experts in different disciplines from eight countries, also operates clinical centers in Europe, the US and Japan.
For his services to Shanghai’s medical system, Fukushima was honored with a Magnolia Silver Award this year.
Fukushima graduated from the University of Tokyo School of Medicine in 1968. He developed his first neuro-endoscopy in his first year of residency as the university hospital and gained global attention at the age of 27.
He participated in establishing the skull base surgery program at the University of California, Los Angeles in the late 1980s and was appointed professor of neurosurgery at the University of Southern California Medical Center in 1991. In the US, he founded the Caroline Neuroscience Institute.
His association with Punan Hospital began in Osaka, where he met Liu Weidong, a graduate of the Osaka Medical College.
“We developed an intimate and professional friendship,” said Fukushima. “I started to come to Punan Hospital to attend the annual Punan International Neurosurgical Workshop and gave hands-on courses for younger neurosurgeons.”
Takanori Fukushima (right) and Dr Liu Weidong are checking the progress of a surgery on the screen of a machine at the Punan Hospital.
Fukushima has specialized in brain tumor and cranial base surgeries, difficult challenges because they involve exposure to vital cranial nerves. He also has dealt with difficult aneurisms, angioma and arteriovenous malformation.
"I remember Dr Liu and I once operated on the brain stem angioma of a Canadian patient, and we cured him," said Fukushima. "Right now, I'm concentrating on a one-time surgical cure for complex, difficult aneurisms."
He holds more than 300 patents and developed the power motordrill, which he calls "the best microscope."
"I'm still working on developing many instruments."
He has also taken his skills to other cities in China, including Harbin, Tianjin, Beijing and Xi'an.
"Everywhere I go, I do my best to help,” he said. "I donate textbooks, surgical video CDs and instruments."
Shanghai occupies a special place in his busy schedule.
"Shanghai is the fastest-growing city in China but a bit different from Hong Kong, Guangzhou or Shenzhen,” he said. “Shanghai is different. In Shanghai, you have very organized business, more free business opportunities and medical doctors who are all open-minded to the world."
He added, "I think the medical care the Shanghai government provides is the most advanced in China. I want to help educate the next generation, the younger neurosurgeons. Most of my work is still at Punan Hospital."
Since 2011, Fukushima has set up a training center at the Punan Hospital, and every year he has come once or twice to Shanghai to teach more than 200 surgeons from Shanghai and other regions of China. So far, some 1,000 neurosurgeons have attended his workshops. Through this platform, he said he aims to cultivate more than 300 neurosurgeons for China in a decade.
He takes pride in contributions he has tried to make toward building a bond of friendship between Japan and China.
"Government is government, politics is politics,” he said. “Japan and China have to communicate, to collaborate. It's beyond any political disputes. We have to collaborate in medicine, particularly in clinical practice. There is no boundary between the countries. We are brothers, friends. We have to advance medical care for the benefit of patients."
Takanori Fukushima is performing a surgery on a patient at the Punan Hospital.
