Sassari It took the person concerned a while to realize. Doctor Francesco Bussu he opened and closed the website page over and over again, then had to surrender to the evidence: “But then it’s true.” There is an international institute, the Scimago institutions ranking, which since 2009 has specialized in publishing reports and rankings on various university fields from all over the world. And under “otolaryngology”, the surprise: the University of Sassari, in the specialty, is 24th in the world. That’s right.
First Italian (behind Milan, in 56th place) and third European, in a ranking full of American institutes – from Harvard to Stanford to Sanit Louis – but also from Holland, Brazil and China, India, Australia. Beyond the numbers, the reality says that this is the only area of Sardinian healthcare in which there is an active mobility of patients coming to the island for surgery from the rest of Italy. This is what happens to those dealing with nose tumors.
The result The director of the university ENT clinic is Francesco Bussu, born in 1974, raised in Oristano, Ollolai family, specializations in France, Germany and the USA. When asked about the sensational 24th place in the world, he replies: «Frankly, I don’t know, I don’t know the criteria. I was surprised and even a little embarrassed by the data, obviously I don’t mind it, but I don’t really know what meaning to give it.” The branch specialized in ear, nose and throat treatments offers a unique case on the island and in the national panorama, which according to the ranking institute compares with global realities.
The force «I am a university professor and a doctor and I believe that treating the sick while improving the standard of care for everyone is the greatest satisfaction – comments Bussu -. This is what is happening with tumors of the anterior part of the nasal cavities, for which we have described a therapeutic approach, now recognized by the Society of Otolaryngology” which has defined it as a new standard and which allows us to avoid amputation of the nose. «The treatment involves a surgical phase which we carry out at the Aou of Sassari and a radiotherapy phase which, due to structural problems, we must carry out at the Mater Olbia». In 2023, the Sassari group of specialists is the one that treated the most cases in Europe, with around 85 percent of patients having to move from regions of northern Italy. «The youngest patient is 27 years old, she comes from Padua, she recently celebrated a year and a half with her nose and without disease», says the director Bussu and does not hide his emotion at all.
School and research He arrived in 2017 as head physician, a year after the closure of the graduate school, «then the university believed and invested, I became a university professor, my collaborator Davide Rizzo associate and full professor and consequently in 2023 the graduate school was reopened. We try to innovate and spread innovation.” A field in which «we are investing a lot and we are leaders in Italy is that of diagnostic procedures under ultrasound guidance, convinced that we surgeons have very useful skills. And in fact we manage and operate on a large number of cervical masses and especially salivary glands which typically need to be assessed before surgery through ultrasound-guided procedures.”
Procedures that are reviewed by specialists from overseas and from abroad, «Egypt, Germany, Turkey, but also the United States». Rankings aside, Bussu specifies, an undeniable strong point is in the resources for research: funding for research: the otolaryngology department of Sassari, he explains, has obtained six funding through tenders in the last two years, one from the Region, two from the Ministry of University and three from the Ministry of Health on Pnrr funds.
