Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery

The Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University was founded in 1949. It is now a clinical key specialty of the Anhui Provincial Health Commission, the lead institution of the Anhui Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery Quality Control Center, one of the earliest master's and doctoral authorization sites in Anhui, the province's only postdoctoral station in this discipline, and a National Cochlear Implantation Center approved by the Ministry of Health. The National Health Commission and National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine have listed it as a construction unit for a “flagship” department for integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine. It has 176 open beds, more than 260,000 outpatient visits and over 11,500 discharges annually, and performs more than 7,000 Class III or higher operations each year. The department includes four wards (the Gaoxin Campus, the main Jixi Road Campus, and two wards at the South Campus).

There are 38 health professionals: 35 doctors, 3 doctoral supervisors, 6 master's supervisors, 6 doctors, 3 doctoral candidates and 3 master's degree holders; among them are 8 chief physicians, 8 associate chief physicians and 8 attending physicians. There are 58 nurses, including 1 chief nurse, 1 associate chief nurse and 8 supervising nurses.

Advanced Technologies

The department routinely performs all kinds of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery procedures and techniques. Key technologies and development priorities include: 1. complex and difficult cochlear implantation, middle- and inner-ear surgery and some lateral skull-base surgery; 2. nasal skull-base surgery; 3. various snoring surgeries and weight-loss techniques; 4. diagnosis and treatment of head and neck tumors (laryngeal, hypopharyngeal and nasopharyngeal cancers, nasal and paranasal sinus tumors, thyroid cancer, etc.), with distinctive and extensive experience in laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancer surgery preserving laryngeal function, thyroid tumor surgery preserving the recurrent laryngeal nerve and parathyroid glands, and high-risk head and neck tumor operations (very elderly patients, severe underlying disease, or recurrence after multiple operations and/or radical radiotherapy); 5. clinical research on integrated Chinese and Western medicine for tinnitus, allergic rhinitis and chronic pharyngolaryngitis, which has achieved important progress.

Department Honors:

In recent years, the department has received 2 second prizes and 3 third prizes of the Anhui Provincial Science and Technology Award, 1 Anhui Medical Science and Technology Popularization Award, the “Anhui Provincial Workers' Pioneer” and “National Workers' Pioneer” honors, among others. Two colleagues received the Anhui May 1st Labor Medal, and one received the Anhui advanced individual award for fighting COVID-19.

Over the past 5 years, the department has undertaken 7 National Natural Science Foundation projects and 4 provincial natural science foundation projects, publishing an average of more than 30 SCI-indexed papers and more than 10 Chinese core-journal papers each year. Its nursing team has been rated an excellent nursing unit by the hospital for 9 consecutive years and has also edited and published a health-science promotion handbook on otolaryngology–head and neck surgery.