“Even though these are typically benign tumors, they are intimate to all of these base skull structures that allow someone to interact with the outside environment,” Youssef said. He recalls that when he first trained in skull base surgery, the overwhelming focus was on removing the pathology – the tumor much less attention was paid to the patient’s post-surgery quality of life.įortunately, he said, times have changed.

A renowned global expert and clinician in skull base surgery, Youssef harnessed the expertise of 96 surgeons worldwide, including 15 from the departments of Neurosurgery and Otolaryngology at the CU School of Medicine, to contribute to the textbook.Īn art illustration of the combined open (right) and endoscopic (left) skull base approach to a complex petroclival meningioma.įunctional preservation is at the heart of every procedure Youssef performs, and it informs the entire 800-page book. Youssef, professor of neurosurgery and Skull Base Surgery director in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, set out to fill the literary gap in his specialty. “The references in skull base surgery have historically been all over the place,” said Samy Youssef, MD, PhD, MSc, FAANS, editor of the recently published multimedia textbook, “Contemporary Skull Base Surgery: A Comprehensive Guide to Functional Preservation.” First-of-its-kind reference And yet, this specialized field has lacked a comprehensive reference book to guide these extremely nuanced procedures. There is no room for error in this region – lest the patient’s senses, speech, expressions, cognition or body movements be temporarily, or even permanently, altered. The stakes are very high when a surgeon must navigate, as in the case of a base skull specialist, the labyrinth of miniscule cranial nerves and blood vessels deep within the brain.

Human anatomy is a universe unto itself – fine-tuned and intricate, and quite delicate.

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