Departments/Faculties
KNU School Of MedicineDepartment
| Department | Department of Otorhinolaryngology |
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| Introduction | The Department of Otorhinolaryngology is committed to diagnosing and treating diseases in areas ranging from the base of the skull to the upper chest. It is divided into the three main sections: head and neck, otology, and rhinology. The Division of Head and Neck Surgery provides comprehensive treatment for benign and malignant tumors of the head and neck, including nasal cavity cancer, oral cancer, laryngeal cancer, thyroid cancer, and salivary gland tumor. It also offers medical treatment for diseases of the head and neck, such as logopathy, respiratory stenosis, and gastroesophageal reflux disease. It conducts endoscopic and laser operations to minimize scars as well as conventional palliative surgical approach. As for treating cervical metastasis of thyroid cancer, the division is making a comparative study between traditional palliative and conservative cervical resection. It is also carrying out studies of genetic factors to predict prognosis of thyroid cancer and a new treatment method that has fewer side effects than conventional cancer chemotherapy and makes outpatient treatment possible in curing head and neck epithelial cell carcinoma. The Division of Otology provides diagnosis and treatment of ear-related diseases, such as hearing defect, vertigo, facial nerve, and inflammation or tumor of the base of the skull including the temporal bone. The division, which is running the cochlear implant clinic for patients with profound hearing loss, performed a cochlear implant surgery for the third time in the country; while developing a totally implantable middle ear implant for the treatment of presbycusis or moderate-severe hearing loss, it is conducting both studies and clinical practices of treatment, surgery, and rehabilitation for patients with hearing loss. It is also performing canaloplasty, which is a procedure to reconstruct external auditory meatus aesthetically as well as functionally for patients with congenital aural atresia. Tinnitus, an intractable disease, is now being treated and studied in the ways of molecular biology and image analysis; in addition, studied on the pathophysiological cause of otitis media is under way. Running one of the best hereditary deafness clinics in the country, the division is carrying out research in hereditary deafness, a major cause of hearing loss, and also conducting many studies with genetically modified animals to identify the cause of deafness. The Division of Rhinology deals with a wide range of nasal diseases. It diagnoses and treats general medical conditions such as allergic rhinitis, deviated nasal septum, and empyema; furthermore, using endoscope, it performs surgery on benign and malignant tumors in not only the nose but the base of the skull. While running the sleep apnea clinic for patients with snoring and sleep apnea, it is carrying out a survey of a Korean version of the Sleep Apnea Quality of Life Index and is recently developing diverse surgical techniques to correct the nose for cosmetic as well as functional purposes. Gene expression analysis of nasal polyps using microarrays, analysis of cytokine in nasal lavage fluid of patients with allergic rhinitis and those with nonallergic rhinitis, and other studies are now in progress.
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| Professors | Chairman: Kyu Yup Lee MD, PhD
Jin Ho Sohn, MD, PhD
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