Research Interests

Surgery and Etiology of CVJ Disease; Mechanism of Neuropathic Pain; Spinal Cord Stimulation in Relieving Pain

Background

Dr. Duan is a consultant neurosurgeon at Xuanwu Hospital and serves as director of the Lab of Spinal Cord Injury and Functional Reconstruction in China INI. Her clinical interests include the surgical treatment of degenerative spine diseases of cervical and lumbar spine, employing minimally invasive techniques when possible. She also specializes in complex spinal conditions including CVJ malformation and spine tumors. She performs more than 400 surgeries per year. She began the research on the Mechanisms of Neuropathic Pain since 2008 and her research interests focus on the Spinal Cord Stimulation in Treating Pain after Spinal Cord Injury.

Dr Duan completed her M.D. degree at Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) in 2012. She received her Neurosurgery Residency training and Specialist training at Xuanwu Hospital in 2017. Then she spent one year of Postdoctoral Research in the Johns Hopkins University and trained in the Neurosurgery/spine Fellowship Programme in Xuanwu Hospital. Dr Duan was the primary investigator of a National Natural Science Foundation and started to direct the lab of Spinal Cord Injury and Functional Reconstruction in China INI in 2020. 

Dr Duan is one of several spine surgeons in China who believes female has intrinsic advantages in taking care of patients and surgical performance. She devotes herself in clinic and neuroscience research and has published more than 20 peer-reviewed articles as first author.

Education

M.D., Neurosurgery, Peking Union Medical College(2004—2012)

Residencies

1. Residency Training of Neurosurgery in Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University(2012—2014)

2. Specialist training of Neurosurgery in Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University(2015—2017)

Fellowships

1. Fellowship training of Spine surgery in Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University (2017-2018).

2. Postdoctoral Research in the Pain Research Core, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. (Prof. Yun Guan). (2018-2019)

3. Short-term Visiting Scholar at Johns Hopkins Hospital, University of California San Francisco School of Medicine and University of Michigan Medical School.

Certifications

1. Physician’s practice license(2013)

2. Certificate of resident standardized training of Surgery (Neurosurgery) Phase I: 2013

3. University lecturer qualification: 2016

Awards & Honors

1. Li-Ji Award for Resident Achievement, Xuanwu Hospital, 2014

2. Outstanding Faculty, Xuanwu Hospital, 2017

Professional Memberships

1. Committee Member of Peripheral Nerve Branch, Beijing Medical Association

2. Youth Committee Member of Spine Branch, Chinese Research Hospital Association

Research & Publications

Published Papers

1. Duan W, Huang Q, Yang F, He SQ, Guan Y*; Spinal Cord Stimulation Attenuates Below-Level Mechanical Hypersensitivity in Rats After Thoracic Spinal Cord Injury. Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface, 2021, 24(1):33-42. (IF 4.029)

2. Duan W, Chou D, Jian F, et al. Posterior intra-articular distraction with cage placement to treat congenital atlantoaxial dislocation associated with basilar invagination[J]. Neurosurgical Focus: Video, 2020, 3(1): V2.

3. Duan W, Chou D, Jian F, et al. Navigated transoral odontoidectomy to treat congenital basilar invagination after failed posterior reduction and fusion[J]. Neurosurgical Focus: Video, 2020, 3(1): V8.

4. Duan W, Chou D, Jian F, et al. Microsurgical Anterior Controllable Antedisplacement Fusion to Treat Cervical Ossified Posterior Longitudinal Ligament: 2-Dimensional Operative Video[J]. Operative Neurosurgery (Hagerstown, Md.), 2020.

5. Duan W, Chou D, Jiang B, et al. Posterior revision surgery using an intraarticular distraction technique with cage grafting to treat atlantoaxial dislocation associated with basilar invagination[J]. Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, 2019, 31(4): 525-533.

6. Duan W, Huang Q, Chen Z, Raja SN, Yang F, Guan Y*; Comparisons of motor and sensory abnormalities after lumbar and thoracic contusion spinal cord injury in male rats. Neuroscience letters, 2019, 708:134358. （IF 2.274,他引2次）

7. Duan, W.R., Liu, Z.L., Guan, J., Xia, Z.Y., Zhao, X.H., Jian, Q., Lan, H.T., Zhao, Z.M., Jian, F.Z. and Chen, Z., 2019. Reduction of the atlantoaxial dislocation associated with basilar invagination through single-stage posterior approach: using Xuanwu occipital-cervical reduction surgical suite. Zhonghua wai ke za zhi [Chinese journal of surgery], 57(10), pp.63-68.[Chinese]

8. Duan W, Du Y, Qi T, Jiang B, Wang K, Liu Z, Guan J, Wang X, Wu H, Chen Z, Jian F. The value and limitation of cervical traction in the evaluation of the reducibility of AAD and BI using intraoperative O-arm. World Neurosurgery. 2019 Aug 30.

9. Duan WR, Xie YK. Modulation of C-nociceptive Activities by Inputs from Myelinated Fibers. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2016;904:33-40.

10. Duan WR, Lu J, Xie YK. Mechanisms of topical analgesics in relieving pain in an animal model of muscular inflammation. Pain Med. 2013 Sep;14(9):1381-7. doi: 10.1111/pme.12199.

Research Founds

1. National Natural Science Foundation for Young Scientists of China (Grant No.81600956, 2017/01-2019/12): Mechanisms of relieving neuropathic pain by activating A-fiber afferents in rats. [primary investigator]

2. Grant for top-notch talent development scholarship program/Xuanwu Hospital (2017/01-2019/12) [primary investigator]