Pediatric Otolaryngology Fellowship

Our Pediatric Otolaryngology Fellowship Program was established in 1992, and has been training fellows ever since that time. In 1998, our program became one of the first fellowship programs to obtain Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accreditation. We have been continually accredited since that time.

Facilities
The Pediatric Otolaryngology service at Texas Children’s Hospital visits does approximately 15,000 operating room cases and over 65,000 outpatient every year at our Texas Medical Center, West and Woodlands Campuses. Fellows typically log 1,200 to 1,500 cases as surgeon or assistant during their year of fellowship.

In addition, 30 to 40 percent of the cases fellows perform are on neonates, infants and children less than two years of age. Cases involving medically complex children with an ASA status of three or above comprise 30 to 40 percent of cases. In particular, Texas Children’s Hospital and the Pavilion for Women house approximately 187 NICU beds, making the hospital the largest Level III NICU in the nation and giving our fellows an extensive experience in congenital and neonatal otolaryngologic disorders.

The Lester and Sue Smith Legacy Tower is a recently opened 640,000 square foot facility with 84 ICU beds including dedicated surgical, neurological and transitional ICU rooms. It is home to the Texas Children’s Heart Center,^® ranked No. 1 nationally in pediatric cardiology and heart surgery by U.S. News & World Report, and gives fellows an extensive experience in managing otolaryngologic issues in patients with cardiovascular conditions.

The Bone Marrow Transplant Unit provides fellows with tremendous exposure to patients with many challenging otolaryngologic infections and disorders of the immune and hematologic systems. The Pediatric Pulmonary service cares for a large Cystic Fibrosis population and has an active lung transplantation program, which contributes ample opportunities for fellows to care for the otolaryngologic needs in this population of patients.

Additional Academic Opportunities
There is an active otologic component to the fellowship. The Texas Children's Audiology Center logged over 23,000 audiologic visits annually and averages 90 - 100 cochlear implants per year.

Fellows also participate in radiology conferences, craniofacial team meetings, aerodigestive meetings, airway conference, grand rounds, vascular anomalies conferences, cochlear implant and otology meetings, quality improvement conferences pediatric otolaryngology seminars, research planning and tumor board meetings.

Outpatient Care
Outpatient care is an important focus of fellowship education. Multidisciplinary clinic involvement includes the aerodigestive clinic, cleft and craniofacial clinic, Down syndrome clinic, vascular anomalies clinic, microtia and congenital hearing loss clinic.

The aerodigestive clinic is a multidisciplinary clinic including pulmonary, otolaryngology and gastroenterology, speech pathology and nutrition focusing on complex patients with airway and swallowing disorders. In addition, there is a multidisciplinary voice and swallowing clinic partnering otolaryngology and speech pathology.

The vascular anomalies clinic draws on expertise from Otolaryngology, Plastic Surgery, Pediatric Surgery, Dermatology, Genetics, Gastroenterology, Hematology/Oncology, Pathology, Pulmonlogy and Interventional Radiology. The Head and Neck Tumor Program and Thyroid Program – collaborative programs involving Pediatric Otolaryngology, Plastic Surgery, Hematology and Oncology – are national referral centers giving fellows unique experiences in ablative and reconstructive techniques in the management of masses of the head and neck.

There are a myriad of outpatient clinics that allows fellows to hone their diagnostic and therapeutics skills in the management of common pediatric otolaryngologic conditions.

Research Projects
While research is not required, for the interested fellow there are ample opportunities to pursue clinical research projects. With Baylor, Texas Children’s participates in approximately 400 research projects and receives more NIH research funding than any other pediatric hospital in the nation. Pediatric Otolaryngology faculty and fellows have a long history of collaboration on projects with other services including Sleep Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Molecular Biology and other services.

Length and Scope
Our one-year, clinical program includes an extensive clinical experience covering surgical cases, outpatient clinics, hospital consults, emergency center evaluations and didactic sessions.

Faculty
Over 25 fellowship-trained Pediatric Otolaryngologists within the Division of Otolaryngology provide tertiary care Otolaryngology to children within the Greater Houston area. We are a regional referral center and have nationally and internationally recognized Aerodigestive and Airway, Voice and Swallowing; Complex Sleep, Vascular Anomalies, Hearing and Cochlear Implant; and Head and Neck Tumor; and Sinonasal/Anterior Skull Base Programs. Faculty provide the majority of the training of fellows. One neurotologist provides adjuvant neurotologic and lateral skull base experience.

Education
Fellows enjoy a structured didactic program with weekly conferences, formal lectures and multidisciplinary conferences.

Supervision
Our philosophy is to encourage incremental learning and development of independent, critical thinking skills. Faculty support, however, is always available and required in the operating room by hospital bylaws.

Case Load
The large volume of patients seen at Texas Children’s Hospital provides broad and extensive exposure to pediatric otolaryngology cases. Tertiary care cases include otologic procedures (including cochlear implants), airway surgery (including laryngotracheal reconstruction and laser surgery of the airway), complex neck masses, complex sleep, voice, VPI and sinus and anterior skull base surgery.

Otolaryngology Residents
Baylor College of Medicine Otolaryngology residents rotate at Texas Children’s Hospital during their training. In addition to the faculty, the Pediatric Otolaryngology team includes a PGY-1, PGY-2, and PGY-3 resident and our two Pediatric Otolaryngology fellows. In addition, our inpatient NP and PAs help with seeing consults and floor work.