RESIDENT MEDICAL OFFICERS' UNIT

Otolaryngology

The Department of Otolaryngology (Head and Neck Surgery) has seven part-time Consultants, two Advanced Trainee Registrars, and one Basic Trainee Registrar (who rotates through other surgical specialties) and two House Officers. The Department has one Ward which it shares with the Department of Ophthalmology. This is adjacent to the Otolaryngology Outpatient area and Audiology, on the fifth floor of the Riverside Block, Christchurch Hospital.

The Department covers the full range of the specialty. As well as all the routine common and traditional conditions usually handled in otolaryngology departments, the following are also part of the workload.

Endocscopic sinus surgery, rhinoplasty and otoplasty, investigation and treatment of sleep disorders, paediatric otolaryngology and airway problems, reconstructive middle ear surgery, surgical treatment of head and neck cancers, skull base surgery, otoneurology and otoneurosurgery and cochlear implantation. A 24 hour acute service is provided. Typically this involves cases with severe epistaxis, foreign bodies in airways or oesophagus, facial and soft tissue neck injury, facial pharyngeal and deep space infections in the head and neck, etc. Approximately 9,000 outpatients are seen per year, and approximately 12000 operations are carried out, either as inpatients or in the Day Surgery theatres.

The Department is actively involved in medical student and registrar teaching.

For more information please contact

Mr Mark Ward, Clinical Director on (64 3) 3640 640
email: mark.ward@cdhb.govt.nz