Oxford Skull Base Service

The skull base is a bony shelf that forms the floor of the cranial cavity, separating the brain from the eyes, nasal cavities, ears and upper neck. It has many openings through which important nerves and blood vessels travel.

Our experienced multidisciplinary team offers a comprehensive skull base service for a wide range of problems affecting structures within the base of the skull.

The commonest conditions we treat are benign tumours such as vestibular schwannomas (acoustic neuromas), meningiomas and pituitary lesions. We also treat patients with conditions affecting the nerves of the base of the skull such as trigeminal neuralgia and hemifacial spasm.

Experts from the relevant specialties help to create an individual treatment plan for each patient. Our patients then attend the clinic most relevant for their condition to receive a comprehensive and balanced view of their options, which can include surveillance without intervention, surgery or radiation treatment. We offer our patients full support throughout.

We are also one of four national advisory centres for Neurofibromatosis Type 2 (NF2).