Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery

Introduction to the Department of Otolaryngology The Department of Otolaryngology of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University is one of the earliest distinctive specialty departments established in Southwest China, founded in Chongqing in 1956 through the relocation of a branch of the Hospital of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology of the former Shanghai First Medical College (now Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University). After more than 60 years of development, it has become a distinctive specialty integrating medical care, teaching, and research, with an outstanding concentration of high-level talent, strong technical capabilities, and first-class equipment and facilities. It currently has 128 beds and an annual outpatient volume of more than 15 × 10,000 visits. It is now authorized to confer doctoral and master's degrees and is the National Key Clinical Specialty, the Chongqing Branch of the National Clinical Medical Research Center for Otolaryngological Diseases, the Nasal Endoscopy and Laryngopharyngeal Endoscopy Training Center of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, the National Standardized Diagnosis and Treatment Base for Head and Neck Tumors, the designated surgical hospital for the National Rescue Rehabilitation Program for Cochlear Implants in Impoverished Deaf Children, the Chongqing Medical Quality Control Center for Otolaryngology, the Chongqing Clinical Medical Research Center for Otolaryngological Diseases, the Chongqing Diagnosis and Treatment Center for Sleep-Related Breathing Disorders, the Chongqing Technical Guidance Center for the Rehabilitation of Hearing and Speech Disabilities, the Chongqing Training Base for Specialist Nurses in Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, and the non-Beijing Training Base of the Chinese Nursing Association for Specialist Nurses in Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery. In the past 7 years, it has been continuously nominated as the Best Specialty in the Fudan Specialty Reputation Rankings, and its overall strength ranks among the leading institutions nationwide. The discipline has abundant talent and a well-structured professional echelon. It currently has 12 senior experts and 10 associate senior experts; 3 co-supervisors for postdoctoral researchers, 4 doctoral supervisors, and 13 master's supervisors. A total of 24 staff members hold doctoral degrees, and 11 have returned after studying at leading medical centers in the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Belgium, and other countries. The department has complete facilities and first-class equipment. It possesses advanced equipment including high-definition microscopes, high-definition endoscopes, a surgical navigation system, a CO2 laser, a low-temperature plasma knife, a focused-ultrasound therapy device, a multichannel sleep-breathing monitoring system, a comprehensive nasal-function testing system, and audiological and vestibular-function testing equipment, ensuring precise examinations and meeting the needs of high-difficulty surgeries for diseases in all subspecialties. It provides year-round, multilevel teaching for undergraduates, international students, standardized residency trainees, advanced-study trainees, and master's and doctoral students. The Department of Audiology and Speech Rehabilitation began enrolling undergraduates in 2019/9 and has received recognition for an online first-class course among Chongqing higher-education institutions, as well as the 2nd prize in the undergraduate category of the 2nd Micro-Video Competition of the People's Medical Publishing House, among other honors. The academic team has led and completed numerous national- and provincial-/ministerial-level research projects, including the National “Tenth Five-Year” Science and Technology Research Project, the National Natural Science Foundation, and the Chongqing Natural Science Foundation, among others; its principal members have published nearly 200 SCI papers as first or corresponding authors. For more than 10 years, the department has continuously followed domestic and international developments in the discipline and has gradually formed distinctive and influential subspecialties, including otology, rhinology, laryngology, and head and neck surgery. It has reached an advanced domestic level in precision surgical intervention for ear diseases, standardized treatment of peripheral vertigo, individualized treatment of nasal and sinus diseases, comprehensive diagnosis and treatment of allergic diseases, the diagnosis and surgical intervention of obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome, and comprehensive treatment of head and neck tumors. Otology Group: The Hearing Center has complete facilities and can conduct comprehensive evaluation and treatment of difficult otologic conditions such as deafness, tinnitus, and vertigo. It provides precision surgical intervention for ear diseases, including external auditory canal plasty and auriculoplasty, endoscopic tympanoplasty, stapes prosthesis implantation, facial-nerve functional reconstruction, cochlear implantation, subtotal temporal-bone resection, acoustic-neuroma resection with simultaneous cochlear implantation, and Type A approach tumor resection in the jugular-foramen region through the infratemporal fossa, as well as other lateral skull-base surgeries. Rhinology Group: It conducts nasal provocation tests, drug provocation tests, in vivo and in vitro allergen testing, combined airway assessments, and other diagnostic procedures, and implements integrated treatment strategies for allergic rhinitis, including drug therapy, specific immunotherapy through multiple routes (sublingual, subcutaneous, lymph-node injection, etc.), high-intensity focused-ultrasound therapy, and surgical nerve-desensitization treatment. It focuses on allergic comorbidities and operates an allergy MDT outpatient clinic. In the field of endoscopic nasal surgery, it has comprehensive diagnostic and treatment capabilities across the full range from external rhinoplasty and inflammatory diseases of the nasal cavity and sinuses to nasocranial-base and orbital tumors. Laryngology Group: It conducts the diagnosis and intervention of sleep apnea, adenoid- and tonsil-related diseases, laryngopharyngeal reflux, and voice and speech disorders. It conducts sleep-breathing monitoring, subjective and objective assessments of speech, language, and voice, voice rehabilitation, language rehabilitation, and treatment of articulation disorders. Its distinctive techniques include modified uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, tongue-base–hyoid suspension, partial tongue-base resection, ultrasound-guided ablation of the tongue base through a combined transoral internal and external approach, minimally invasive CO2 laser resection of vocal-fold lesions, microsurgical suturing of the pharyngolaryngeal region, and laryngeal fat-injection filling. Head and Neck Surgery Group: It provides minimally invasive treatment for head and neck tumors such as early laryngeal cancer, hypopharyngeal cancer, and oropharyngeal cancer. It has maintained a head and neck tumor MDT team for more than 10 years, further improving standardized treatment of advanced and recurrent head and neck malignancies and preservation of laryngeal function, and has focused on esophageal-speech training and speech rehabilitation after total laryngectomy for more than 20 years. In addition, the diagnosis and treatment of laryngotracheal stenosis, parapharyngeal skull-base tumors, salivary-gland-origin tumors, thyroid tumors, oropharyngeal tumors, and other benign and malignant tumors are also traditional strengths of the department. In recent years, the introduction of endoscopic resection of benign and malignant neck tumors and robot-assisted resection of head and neck tumors has provided patients with higher-quality minimally invasive treatment. A proactive and enterprising medical and nursing team