The Division of Otology, Neurotology, and Skull Base Surgery in NYU Langone Health’s Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery uses education and research to advance the treatment and management of ear, hearing, and balance disorders and related lateral skull base disorders.

We train otolaryngology residents in diseases and disorders of the ear, including hearing and balance disorders. Our neurotology fellowship trains physicians to provide surgical care for conditions that affect the lateral skull base and nerves connecting the ear and brain. Areas studied include the treatment of hearing loss; tinnitus; dizziness; infectious and inflammatory diseases of the ear; facial nerve disorders; congenital malformations of the ear; and tumors of the ear, cranial nerves, and lateral skull base.

Trainees, including medical students, residents, and fellows, learn from our world-renowned faculty, who have expertise in the pathology and management of otologic and neurotologic disorders and lateral skull base lesions; hearing loss restoration; and congenital and acquired disorders of the temporal bone.

Our faculty members have published hundreds of studies in peer-reviewed scientific journals and are regularly invited to share their expertise on otology, neurotology, and skull base surgical techniques at national and international conferences and symposia.

Otology, Neurotology, and Skull Base Surgery Education

Our medical students, residents, and fellows learn all aspects of care, management, and surgical procedures for the full range of diseases of the ear and skull base.

Medical students participate in electives within our division if they choose to explore otolaryngology as part of NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s Curriculum for the 21st Century. House staff participate in rotations as part of the Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery Residency program and the Paul E. Hammerschlag Fellowship in Neurotology.

Trainees at all levels gain experience at subspecialty clinics at NYU Langone’s Tisch Hospital, Kimmel Pavilion, Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone, NYU Langone Hospital—Brooklyn, NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, and the VA NY Harbor Healthcare System. Our facilities feature the latest technology and tools, including lasers, ear endoscopes, ultrasonic aspirators, and neurophysiological monitoring of cranial nerves.

During your training, you learn to interpret audiologic and vestibular testing, including diagnostic audiograms and immittance testing, brainstem evoked potentials, otoacoustic emissions, electrocochleography, cervical and ocular-vestibular evoked myogenic potentials, videonystagmography, rotatory chair testing, and platform posturography.

Residents begin their otologic surgical training with a dedicated temporal bone laboratory course and continue in a two-year series of lectures and conferences that cover the essential elements of otology and neurotology.

Both residents and fellows attend conferences on skull base lesions, vestibular disorders, neurofibromatosis type 2, and neuroradiology, hosted in collaboration with the Departments of Neurosurgery, Neuroscience and Physiology, Neurology, Radiology, Radiation Oncology, and Rusk Rehabilitation.

Your clinical experience as a resident or fellow includes extensive exposure to treating chronic ear diseases, hearing loss, tinnitus, otosclerosis, paragangliomas, temporal bone traumas and malignancies, acoustic neuroma and other cerebellopontine angle tumors, dizziness and balance disorders, and facial nerve disorders. Surgical procedures you perform include tympanoplasty and mastoidectomy; skull base surgery for acoustic neuromas, meningiomas, and jugular foramen tumors; and cochlear, bone-anchored, and auditory brainstem implants.

Otology, Neurotology, and Skull Base Surgery Continuing Medical Education

At our annual two-day continuing medical education course on temporal bone dissection, general and pediatric otolaryngologists learn the latest techniques in temporal bone dissection, middle ear and ossicular chain reconstructive surgery, and cochlear implantation.

Members of the Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery faculty and invited guest faculty give lectures, host discussions, and lead a temporal bone laboratory. Participants gain hands-on experience completing their own dissections and implementing the strategies and techniques presented during the course.

Otology, Neurotology, and Skull Base Surgery Research

Along with investigators in the Department of Neuroscience and Physiology and at the Cochlear Implant Center, our researchers conduct human and animal research to answer important questions about human hearing and perception. Our goal is to improve treatments for people with hearing loss and balance disorders.

Our research programs, funded by both federal and private grants, explore auditory and vestibular pathways in the brain, the physiology of hearing, connections between central nervous system changes and auditory development, and congenital and acquired disorders of the temporal bone.

Investigators at the Cochlear Implant Center study outcomes related to cochlear implant and auditory brainstem implant technology. Our surgeons and investigators, led by Susan B. Waltzman, PhD, conduct projects including expanded candidacy criteria, implantation in groups that have residual low-frequency hearing, and implantation in patients with single-sided deafness.

In ongoing research, investigators Mario A. Svirsky, PhD, and Robert C. Froemke, PhD, monitor brain activity in people with cochlear implants to investigate ways to improve sound perception. Researcher Michael A. Long, PhD, studies how the brain encodes and produces speech, in order to improve therapies and rehabilitation methods for patients undergoing neurosurgery for epilepsy or to remove brain tumors. Investigator David E. Schoppik, PhD, examines the mechanisms responsible for balance in zebrafish to better understand and develop new strategies for treating balance disorders in humans.

Medical students, residents, fellows, and otolaryngologists have opportunities to participate in basic science, translational research, and clinical research in our division. Learn more about Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery research.

Otology, Neurotology, and Skull Base Surgery Clinical Services

At NYU Langone’s Otology and Neurotology Group, we treat ear, hearing, facial nerve, balance, and skull base diseases and disorders. We collaborate with neurosurgeons in our Lateral Skull Base Surgery Program to treat and manage nerve and skull base tumors, including acoustic neuromas, meningiomas, neurofibromatosis, and cholesteatomas.

We also work with experts at the Cochlear Implant Center, Facial Paralysis and Reanimation Center, Voice Center, and Comprehensive Neurofibromatosis Center to manage symptoms caused by these conditions, such as hearing loss, facial nerve weakness, and vocal fold weakness. Learn about our approaches to hearing loss, tinnitus, and vertigo.