Skull base surgery is a specialized type of surgery that focuses on treating conditions at the base of the skull. This includes areas like the undersurface of the brain and important nerves and vessels that exit out of the brain to support senses such as sight, smell, and hearing. The challenge in skull base surgery is reaching these areas without having to cut through the skull and retract the brain. The goal is to get to and operate on these difficult areas with as little impact on the normal brain as possible.

Otolaryngology skull base surgery is minimally invasive and almost always performed using a team approach. An ENT (ear, nose, and throat) specialist, or otolaryngologist, typically teams with a neurosurgeon to access these areas through the nose, eyelid, forehead, or above and behind the ear.