Skull Base Surgery Center

Our Skull Base Surgery Center is directed by Dr. Joung H. Lee, an internationally recognized leader in the subspecialty who founded the Center for Skull Base Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic in 1993.  He then served as its founding Director and Professor (Neurosurgery) until 2014 when he moved back to Los Angeles to serve his “home” community in which he grew up.

During his 21-year tenure at the Cleveland Clinic, its Center for Skull Base Surgery became one of the largest and most respected programs in the nation, particularly for treating benign brain tumors such as meningiomas and schwannomas, which commonly occur along the base of the skull.  While there, he developed many skull base surgical techniques and minimally invasive surgery techniques currently used by many neurosurgeons throughout the world.

Lesions located in or around the base of the skull are very difficult to treat surgically due to their “deep-seated” locations. Many of these “skull base” conditions were considered “inoperable” until about 30 years ago when the subspecialty of skull base surgery was at its beginning.  With a multi-disciplinary team approach and innovative surgical techniques since developed, however, specially trained experts are now able to routinely remove these previously deemed “inoperable” skull base lesions, providing patients with excellent outcome.

Surgery on skull base tumors combines the highly specialized techniques with the principal goal to permit access to difficult-to-reach lesions by anatomic displacement or extensive removal of the skull base bone to minimize or avoid the potentially damaging brain retraction.

Our program utilizes state-of-the-art technology and equipment, including frameless/stereotactic wand guidance, intraoperative monitoring, angiography/embolization, laser and stereotactic radiosurgery.

Skull base surgical techniques are commonly used to treat various brain tumors and lesions in or around the paranasal sinuses and the floor of the anterior fossa, orbit, infratemporal fossa, sella, clivus, cavernous sinus, temporal bone/petrous apex, posterior fossa, and the foramen magnum region.

We treat the following brain tumors and conditions:

• Meningiomas
• Schwannomas
• Acoustic neuromas
• Pituitary tumors
• Microadenomas
• Macroadenomas
• Cranopharyngiomas
• Cholesteatomas
• Cholesterol granulomas
• Chordomas
• Chondromas
• Chondrosarcomas
• Dermoids
• Epidermoids
• Esthesioneuroblastomas
• Fibrous dysplasias
• Metastatic cancer
• Skull (bone) tumors
• Neurofibromas
• Nasal sinus tumors
• Orbital tumors
• Temporal bone tumors
• Encephaloceles
• CSF rhinorrhea