The Department of OTOHNS at the University of Kansas has an active program in Head and Neck Surgery and Skull Base Surgery whose patient accruement area includes all of Kansas and part of western Missouri. All patients are presented prospectively at the multidisciplinary Head and Neck Surgery Tumor Board held bi-weekly for a consensus opinion on treatment. A multidisciplinary Thyroid Tumor Board is held monthly to discuss new thyroid malignancy patients.

With microvascular reconstruction expertise within the Department of OTOHNS, head and neck oncologic procedures are performed concurrently with reconstructive procedures, shortening the patient's anesthetic time and increasing OR use efficiency. Senior residents perform both the extirpative and reconstructive portions of the operation without competition from post-graduate fellows. Training in transfacial and endoscopic surgical approaches to the skull base, endoscopic diverticulectomy, and thyroid/parathyroid surgery is also extensive. This experience at KUMC is supplemented by an extensive head and neck experience at the VAMC and TMC staffed by the same faculty.

The Skull Base Surgery Team works closely with the Head and Neck Reconstruction Team as well as with faculty in the Departments of Neurosurgery and Ophthalmology to provide surgical treatment to anterior, middle and posterior fossa neoplasms. An active Interventional Radiology division also provides angiographic and endovascular procedure support to the Skull Base Surgery Team. This has been supplemented by extensive intra-operative experience with the Xomed Evolution stereotactic surgical guidance system.

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