Fudan Eye and ENT Hospital: Hearing and Rhinology Specialist Teams

What the hospital's ENT specialty is known for

The hospital’s ENT specialty placed first in the historical 2023 national specialty reputation list. This is a department-level reference, not a current ranking of individual doctors or of each subspecialty.

Its connection with Fudan University links clinical practice with academic work. The official university profiles and hospital-supplied reports describe hearing reconstruction, hereditary deafness, complex ear disease and rhinology. They also record the development of head-and-neck oncology teaching. These directions help distinguish the kind of question a specialist review would address.

A search for “ENT care in Shanghai” can therefore lead to very different conversations. A family with a known hereditary hearing-loss diagnosis is not seeking the same assessment as someone with recurrent vertigo or a nasal/skull-base lesion. Stating the unresolved problem makes the hospital’s range of expertise more useful than selecting a name from a long roster.

Hearing loss, hereditary deafness and hearing reconstruction

Shu Yilai’s official Fudan Institute of Medical Genetics profile identifies him as professor, chief physician, hospital vice president and director of the hereditary hearing-loss diagnosis and treatment center. It documents hearing reconstruction and hereditary deafness among his clinical interests. These are specific team roles rather than a claim that he directs every ENT service.

Li Huawei is a senior hearing clinician and researcher. His university biography, dated August 2020, describes cochlear implantation and ear microsurgery, together with work on tinnitus, vertigo and facial-nerve disease. Its then-director appointments should remain dated rather than being presented as newly verified current posts.

For a hearing-related enquiry, the useful questions concern what remains uncertain: the explanation for the hearing problem, the purpose of a proposed operation or implant assessment, and which part of the history needs specialist review. If a genetic diagnosis already exists, its wording can be included in the case summary without assuming that it determines treatment.

A second opinion may be intended to clarify a diagnosis, compare proposed options or review a plan already discussed locally. Those are different requests. Explaining which decision is unresolved helps avoid turning a hearing consultation into a general search for the most prominent surgeon.

Hereditary deafness research and clinical innovation

Shu’s profile lists a 2024 Lancet single-arm trial of AAV1-hOTOF therapy for a specific autosomal-recessive deafness subtype. His broader research includes gene compensation/editing, hair-cell regeneration and hearing protection. Animal experiments in this portfolio remain distinct from human clinical studies.

In March 2025, Fudan's medical school reported that Shu received an Award for Clinical Innovation at the 48th Association for Research in Otolaryngology meeting, held 22–26 February 2025 in Orlando. The same report describes team presentations on hereditary hearing-loss gene therapy, hearing and speech assessment, and preclinical work, and records preparatory approval in December 2024 of a rare-disease gene-editing and cell-therapy laboratory.

The question for a patient interested in this work is whether any relevant clinical pathway is currently available and appropriate for that person’s diagnosis. A published trial does not establish open enrollment, regulatory approval or a treatment that can simply be purchased. Conventional hearing-care options also remain a subject for the treating team rather than something to dismiss because research has attracted publicity.

It is helpful to separate the scientific question from the travel decision. A family can seek clarification about the genetic subtype studied and the purpose of a clinical assessment before assuming that an overseas visit will lead to an experimental treatment. No treatment timetable or individual hearing result follows from the publication alone.

Complex ear and vestibular disease

Li Huawei’s dated clinical profile also gives context for enquiries about complex ear disease, tinnitus, vertigo and facial-nerve problems. The common word “ear” does not identify a single service. A request concerning repeated episodes of dizziness has a different focus from one about a previous middle-ear operation or a proposed hearing reconstruction.

Useful questions include what the earlier assessments concluded, which findings remain disputed, and what the patient hopes another opinion will resolve. A concise description of the episodes or functional problem is more informative than a broad request for every possible examination. Existing reports can be identified for review without treating this article as a required test list.

If an implant or reconstructive procedure has already been proposed, the consultation can focus on the reasons for that proposal, alternatives and the questions still unanswered. It is also worth asking how the assessment relates to longer-term hearing or rehabilitation support. The team responsible for the case must define that plan.

Rhinology and skull-base diagnostic review

A 21 March 2025 Fudan report, sourced to the hospital, identifies Professor Wang Dehui's rhinology and skull-base team. The report describes a clinical case published in Lancet Infectious Diseases involving chronic granulomatous invasive fungal rhinosinusitis that mimicked a meningioma. Multidisciplinary comparison of pathology and microbial sequencing clarified that individual diagnosis.

This is a concrete example of a team resolving uncertainty between different explanations for a skull-base lesion. It is not a recommendation that everyone undergo microbial sequencing. For someone whose imaging and earlier opinions do not agree, the relevant question is which parts of the existing evidence the specialist would compare and what decision that comparison is intended to support.

The department’s historical head-and-neck record is broader. A November 2015 Fudan report on a meeting led by Zhou Liang describes teaching on laryngeal/hypopharyngeal cancer, reconstruction, salivary and thyroid disease, temporal-bone surgery and radiotherapy. It documents development and collaboration; a current team and case-specific pathway still need confirmation.

Honors, and how to read them

Shu’s academic profile lists the 2023 Huaxia Young Medical Science Award and the 2020 Shanghai Youth May Fourth Medal. The separate 2025 ARO announcement provides international recognition of his clinical innovation research.

Li Huawei’s 2020 biography lists a National Science and Technology Progress Second Prize, an education-sector natural-science first prize and a Shanghai science-progress first prize, without specifying award years. These recognitions belong to his documented record, not to every doctor working in the department.

For a patient comparing teams, an honor is useful background but cannot answer who would assess the case, which clinical question that person focuses on or how the proposed options compare. Those details give the academic record a practical connection to the individual enquiry.

Practical decisions before you enquire

Keep the first summary focused on the ENT decision: the diagnosis already given, the main symptom or functional concern, previous treatment and the question you want reviewed. Identify existing hearing reports, operative notes or imaging/pathology material if relevant, then confirm what the assessment team actually needs rather than commissioning new tests from a general checklist.

Before making travel commitments, clarify the intended specialist service, whether the request is for a records opinion or an in-person examination, and what language support and follow-up arrangements would be needed. A research affiliation does not itself settle these arrangements. Questions about named clinicians or experimental studies should be resolved separately from routine assessment planning.

ChinaSpecialistCare can help organise an ENT case summary, relevant records and independent coordination of a suitable specialist assessment. We are not Fudan’s hospital or its official representative. Hospital acceptance, the clinician involved and any treatment or research access remain decisions for the receiving clinical team.

Ear, nose and throat care