Department of Orthopaedics, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital Introduction

 Aug 31, 2010

Orthopaedics is the medical and surgical specialty concerned with the prevention, restoration, and development of the musculoskeletal system. The Department of Orthopaedics at Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, founded in 1990, is committed to the treatment and prevention of physical handicaps in all patients, the furthering of orthopaedic knowledge through research, and to the teaching of medical students and orthopaedic residents. The entire staff is deeply involved in the accomplishment of these goals.

The Department of Orthopaedics consists of three divisions: Bone and Joint Diseases, Orthopaedic Trauma, and Sports Medicine. Members of the Bone and Joint Diseases Division have extensive experience in the management of joint reconstruction (Wong, CY), spine surgery (Lin, LC; Hsu, CJ; Chen CH; Tu, CH), foot and ankle surgery (Chou, YC) and tumor surgery (Yang, SW). Members of the Orthopaedic Trauma are specialists in the injuries of the musculoskeletal system (Tang, YW; Lin, KC), pediatric orthopaedics (Chang, WN), and upper extremities surgery (Tang, YW). Members of the Sports Medicine are experts (Lu, YC; Lin, KY) in prevention and treatment of sports related disorders.

The staffs of the Department of Orthopaedics are encouraged to expand their ability in education and research. The staffs that currently has the Ministry of Education certified teaching posts and their teaching appointments are listed as follows:

 To enable the advancement in orthopaedic technology, the Department has been engaged in improving research collaboration in "Basic Medicine/Biomechanics" and "Clinical Medicine" in recent years. So far we have conducted researches in pharmacology of NSAIDs (Wong, CY), implant design for spine surgery (Lin, LC), calcium channel in orthopaedic related cells (Lu, YC), orthopaedic tissue engineering (Hsu, CJ; Tang, YW), gait analysis for children with cerebral palsy (Chang, WN), and foot modeling (Chou, YC).

The "Gait Analysis Laboratory" of the Department was designated for the clinical evaluation and research of pathologic gait. It is currently under purchasing process and will be established at the end of year 2004. The purpose of the Gait Analysis Laboratory is to corporate the technology of computer science and human biodynamics to investigate the basics of human local motion, as well as clinical pathologic gait. The major clinical interests will be focused on neuromuscular disorders including the pathomechanisms of gait in children with cerebral palsy.

The “ Bone Bank” was designated for the preservation of donated bone which were provided for orthopaedic reconstructive surgery. It is currently established at the end of year 2009. It was the first tissue preservation bank approved by the official government in Taiwan.

By advancing our technology of giving high quality musculoskeletal patient care, teaching and research, with dedication to service, we believe, the Department of Orthopaedics will fulfill the "Core Value" of the Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital: high quality service, ambition and innovation, glorifying life, and the goal is love.