Residents in Neurosurgery and Otolaryngology at WashU Medicine – along with visiting residents from across the Midwest – practiced open and endoscopic surgical approaches to the anterior skull base at their dissection lab, Saturday, May 10.
Guest faculty included two renowned skull base surgeons from Mayo Clinic: neurosurgeon Maria Peris Celda, MD, PhD, and neurotologist Jake Eide, MD.
Held at WashU Medicine’s Multidisciplinary Surgical Simulation Lab, the event included lectures on anatomy and surgical approaches, followed by hands-on surgical practice using cadaveric specimens. Trans-nasal endoscopic procedures were the focus of the morning session, while techniques for the cranio-orbitozygomatic approach were practiced during the afternoon session.
Using these approaches, neurosurgeons and otolaryngologists regularly work together to surgically remove benign and malignant tumors involving the skull base and sinonasal tract and to correct vascular disorders such as aneurysms.
“Every year, we look forward to the multidisciplinary skull base course as it provides a phenomenal opportunity for our residents to hone their endoscopic skull base skills in collaboration with their neurosurgery colleagues,” said rhinologist and skull base surgeon Nyssa Farrell, MD. “This course is an essential part of our residents’ surgical development.”
This year marked the 11th annual event. Participating WashU Med Otolaryngology and Neurosurgery faculty included:
- Bhuvic Patel, MD (Course co-director)
- Albert Kim, MD, PhD (Course co-director)
- Ananth Vellimana, MD
- John Schneider, MD (Course co-director)
- Nyssa Farrell, MD
- Lauren Roland, MD, MSCI
- Jarrett Walsh, MD
For ENT resident Emma Watson, MD, the course was a unique experience.
“I always get excited to spend time in our new state of the art simulation lab,” she said. “This course was an outstanding opportunity to work on open and endoscopic skull base techniques while also building relationships with our neurosurgery colleagues.”
Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery Bhuvic Patel, MD, commented on the regional expansion.
“It was a privilege to co-direct this year’s Anterior Skull Base Course with Dr. Schneider and Dr. Kim,” he said.” Expanding the course to include trainees from other programs in Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee allowed us to broaden our regional impact and share our expertise in comprehensive open and endoscopic techniques with the next generation of skull base surgeons.”
This year’s course was supported by a number of vendors, including Integra/Codman, Medtronic, Peter Lazic, Ethicon, Spiway, and Sutter Medical Technologies.