Otology Department

Basic department information: The Ear Specialty has the most advanced contemporary hearing and electrophysiological examination instruments and surgical equipment, and an excellent academic team in China, including 3 professors, 3 associate professors, 2 attending physicians, and 2 resident physicians. It also has a Clinical Audiology Center with 3 physicians specializing in clinical audiology and audiology research (1 senior, 1 intermediate, and 1 junior professional title) and 5 audiology technicians. Its overall strength has reached a leading level in the province and an advanced level nationally. Clinical work: The department has all modern audiological examination, screening, and diagnostic equipment and technologies, and performs all types of tympanoplasty, stapedectomy, facial nerve decompression, jugular bulb tumor resection, and cochlear implantation (it is a Ministry of Health-designated cochlear surgery unit). 1. Otomicrosurgery: It mainly performs various middle-ear operations, including treatment of chronic suppurative otitis media, middle-ear cholesteatoma, tympanic body tumor, adhesive otitis media, tympanosclerosis, hemangioma, cholesterol granuloma, and external- and middle-ear malformations. Nearly 800 otologic microsurgeries, including stapes operations, are performed every year. 2. Endoscopic minimally invasive ear surgery: Since the early 1990s, the department has been among the first in China to perform ear endoscopic operations; more than 3,000 operations have been performed, including endoscopic tympanoplasty, tympanotomy with tube insertion for secretory otitis media, ossicular prosthesis implantation for otosclerosis, and endoscopic exploration of the epitympanum with cholesteatoma removal. 3. Otoneurosurgery: The department has successively performed facial nerve decompression for facial paralysis, facial nerve dissection for hemifacial spasm, facial nerve transplantation or rerouting anastomosis for immediate functional restoration after facial nerve tumor resection, and labyrinthectomy or vestibular nerve section for intractable vertigo. 4. Lateral skull-base surgery: This mainly treats benign and malignant temporal-bone tumors, including middle-ear cancer, eosinophilic granuloma, giant-cell tumor of bone, congenital temporal-bone cholesteatoma, jugular bulb tumor, and acoustic neuroma. For these diseases, the department performs partial, subtotal, and total temporal-bone resection; endoscopy-assisted removal of petrous-apex cholesteatoma; and acoustic-neuroma resection through the translabyrinthine and extended translabyrinthine approaches. In particular, acoustic-neuroma resection through these two approaches can be performed at only a few hospitals in China and has received favorable patient feedback. 5. Clinical audiology: This is an otology subspecialty integrating diagnosis, treatment, and prevention, and it diagnoses and treats tinnitus, hearing loss, and vertigo. For tinnitus it provides tinnitus matching, medication, masking, sound therapy, and TRT training, with good results. For vertigo it performs differential diagnosis and treatment, greatly raising diagnostic accuracy and improving efficacy. For hearing loss it first distinguishes conductive from sensorineural hearing loss: conductive loss can be improved surgically; patients with sensorineural loss receive stepwise treatment, beginning with medication according to the possible cause, then hearing aids for those who do not improve but retain some hearing, and cochlear implantation for bilateral extremely severe sensorineural loss. Genetic testing for hereditary deafness is also provided for patients with a genetic tendency, benefiting prevention, treatment, and eugenics. 6. Cochlear implants: Our specialty has successfully completed nearly 300 operations, restoring hearing and speech function. It is the hospital with the largest number of operations and best outcomes in South China, at a leading level in South China and an advanced level nationally. Our hospital has also successfully entered the designated hospitals for the China Rehabilitation and Rescue Project for Cochlear Implants in Poor Deaf Children. Scientific research: Over the past decade, the Ear Specialty has undertaken the following research projects: 1 subproject of the national 973 Program; 2 general projects of the National Natural Science Foundation; 1 Ministry of Education postdoctoral fund project; 1 key project of the Guangdong Natural Science Foundation; 8 Guangdong Natural Science Foundation and science-and-technology planning fund projects; 16 SCI papers; and more than 50 papers in domestic core journals. Talent development: 1. Centering on high-level academic leaders in the Ear Specialty and around the core clinical technologies of hearing-reconstruction surgery and prevention and treatment of sensorineural hearing loss, the department seeks more key National Natural Science Foundation projects and grants and plans to establish an excellent technical team of young and middle-aged professionals. 2. It will optimize the technical team's structure and raise its level; all new staff will have at least a doctoral degree, and high educational qualifications and overseas training experience are required for appointments and key posts. 3. Young otologists are regularly sent to high-level domestic refresher programs and to developed countries overseas for long-, medium-, and short-term clinical training. Academic leaders (omit if none): Senior professional staff: Chen Xihui, Xiong Guanxia, Jiang Hongyan. Associate senior staff: Jiang Guangli, Liu Min, Wu Xuan.