Mengchao Wu, Chinese chest surgeon (Minqing County, Fuzhou Province 31 August 1922 – Shanghai 22 May 2021)

Achievements

Proposed the five lobe and four segment of liver theory (1960)

Developed a operation of intermittent interruption of the porta hepatis at room temperature (1963) that evolved to a technique of normothermic total hepatic vascular occlusion for hepatectomy (1980s)

Obtained the first successful lobectomy of the middle liver in the world (1963)

Removed the largest hepatic cavernous hemangioma in the world of its day (1975)

Conducted the world’s first laparoscopic resection of liver tumors (1990s)

Proposed ideas as repeat hepatectomy for postoperative recurrent liver cancer and secondary resection for larger tumors (two-stage resection)

Originated hepatic artery ligation

Proposed biochemical metabolic rules of normal and cirrhotic liver after hepatectomy and established strategies to prevent and correct postoperative metabolic disorders

Honors

17606 Wumengchao (Asteroid)