Skull Base Surgery

What are skull base disorders?

Your skull base is the gap between your brain and the bone surface under it. It includes the bony ridges behind your eyes and nose and the area around your ears. Various kinds of tumors can grow in this area and treating them is challenging. They’re often buried deep within tissue structures and can be intertwined with nerves and blood vessels that affect your brain and spinal cord. For this reason, we work across multiple disciplines to treat skull base disorders such as: 

• Brain tumors
• Vestibular schwannoma (acoustic neuroma)
• Bone lesions
• Pituitary tumors
• Meningiomas
• Lesions of blood vessels such as aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations
• Leaking brain fluid (cerebrospinal fluid or CSF)

An expert team, high technology

The skull base surgery team – consisting of neurosurgeons, neurotologists, otolaryngologists and radiation oncologists – uses four different approaches to treatment; what’s utilized depends upon you and your condition:

• Endoscopic surgery – conducted through the sinus cavity or the nostrils
• Craniotomy – traditional, open surgery where portions of the skull are temporarily removed to gain access to the tumor
• Radiosurgery – often using the Gamma Knife®, involves beams of radiation to destroy the tumor
• Watchful waiting – means monitoring the growth of the tumor without surgery

Your surgery team uses leading-edge navigation technology such as virtual reality for surgical planning and augmented reality for operative guidance. The difference is like driving with GPS versus a map. Advantages include small incisions or no incisions at all, less pain and a shorter hospital stay.

Advanced otolaryngology

Your team is also made up of experienced head and neck surgeons who treat a wide range of otolaryngologic conditions. These include:

• Tumors of the anterior and lateral skull base (including the temporal bone)
• Cancers of the head and neck
• Sinonasal disease and allergies
• Dysphagia and laryngeal abnormalities
• Hearing loss (Including cochlear implants and other implantable devices)
• Facial paralysis
• Endoscopic approaches to the anterior cranial base (for tumors and repair of cerebrospinal fluid leaks) and the pituitary gland
• Routine and complex sinus surgery, including frontal sinus surgery and revision surgery for nasal polyps and treatment of severe nosebleeds
• Orbital and optic nerve decompression and dacryocystorhinostomy procedures for orbital tumors and thyroid eye disease

Whether you live locally in our own community or travel for treatment, our otolaryngology, head and neck surgeons and entire skull base surgery team bring the highest quality care and the latest clinical treatments close to home. Through world-class expertise and leading-edge technology, we help patients get back to living life to the fullest.