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About

Hengrui Liang is a thoracic surgeon and clinical researcher whose work sits at the cutting edge of minimally invasive and robotic-assisted thoracic surgery, with a particular focus on lung cancer treatment and pulmonary nodule localization. His most influential contribution, a 2017 comparative study of robotic versus video-assisted lobectomy and segmentectomy (163 citations), helped establish the safety and efficacy of robotic-assisted approaches for radical lung cancer resection at a time when the technique remained widely debated. This foundational work has shaped clinical decision-making across thoracic surgery programs worldwide. Liang has continued to push surgical boundaries through pioneering techniques, including nonintubated robotic thoracic surgery for tracheal reconstruction — a technically demanding innovation combining spontaneous ventilation with robotic precision. His more recent research addresses a growing clinical challenge: accurately localizing small pulmonary nodules detected through low-dose CT screening. His development and validation of robotic-assisted navigation systems for preoperative nodule localization, demonstrated in both pilot clinical studies and in vivo swine models, represents a significant step toward greater surgical precision in early-stage lung cancer management. With cumulative citations exceeding 270 and ongoing work on single-port robotic platforms, Liang's research continues to define the trajectory of next-generation minimally invasive thoracic surgery.