UC Irvine Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery

UC Irvine Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery Leading Otolaryngology Teaching Hospital: Research, Expanded Residency Program, Continuing Medical Education

Welcome to University of California Irvine Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery. We are your comprehensive resource for all medical issues related to the ear, nose, throat, head and neck tumors, and facial plastic surgery. UC Irvine Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery ranked #33 in the U.S. on US News and World Report's ranking of top hospitals for Ear Nose and Throat. The 2014-15 rankings cover nearly 5,000 medical centers across the country and span 16 medical specialties.

101 The City Drive South, Pavilion II, Orange, CA 92868
714-456-7017
and
62 Corporate Park Ste # 115
Irvine, CA 92606

08/30/2025

The gift of hearing again! Dr. Djalilian shares some of the powerful moments patients experience when their hearing is restored:

✨ Hearing the hum of the air conditioner for the first time.
✨ Realizing toilets make a sound when they flush.
✨ Discovering that songs have words, not just melodies. 🎶

These little moments remind us that hearing restoration isn’t just about sound… it’s about rediscovering life itself.



Hearing Protection, Loud Sound, Headphone Hearing Damage, Hearing Safety, Ear Protection, Parenting Tips, Hearing Damage Prevention, Safe Toys, Ear Health, ENT Tips, Protect Your Ears, ENT Doctor, UCI ENT, Audiology, Otolaryngology, Hearing Loss, Restored Hearing, Ear Surgery

Join us for Grand Rounds on Wednesday, August 27 for Maki Yamamoto, MD, FACS of UC Irvine Health for "What's New in Mela...
08/27/2025

Join us for Grand Rounds on Wednesday, August 27 for Maki Yamamoto, MD, FACS of UC Irvine Health for "What's New in Melanoma: The Paradigm Shift." We meet at 5pm PT via ZOOM!

Join us for Grand Rounds on Wednesday, August 20 for Jon Mallen-St. Clair, MD, PhD of Cedars-Sinai  for "Evolving Concep...
08/19/2025

Join us for Grand Rounds on Wednesday, August 20 for Jon Mallen-St. Clair, MD, PhD of Cedars-Sinai for "Evolving Concepts in Mandibular Reconstruction." We meet at 5pm PT via ZOOM!

Join us for Grand Rounds on Wednesday, July 29 for Dinesh K. Chhetri, MD, FACS of  for "Evolution of Laryngeal Reinnerva...
07/28/2025

Join us for Grand Rounds on Wednesday, July 29 for Dinesh K. Chhetri, MD, FACS of for "Evolution of Laryngeal Reinnervation: Past Milestones and Future Prospects." We meet at 5pm PT via ZOOM!

Dr. Sina J. Torabi, chief resident, UC Irvine Department of Otolaryngology was awarded a CORE AAO-HNSF Resident Research...
07/22/2025

Dr. Sina J. Torabi, chief resident, UC Irvine Department of Otolaryngology was awarded a CORE AAO-HNSF Resident Research Grant for his project titled "Data Deficiencies: Implications for Medicare Valuations Within Otolaryngology." Dr. Torabi aims to utilize national datasets to identify critical flaws in the physician reimbursement system in an effort to inform a more sustainable future reimbursement model. He is pursuing this project under the collaborative mentorship of Dr. Edward Kuan of UC Irvine and Dr. R. Peter Manes of Yale University.

We are proud to share that Dr. Fan-Gang Zeng of the UC Irvine Department of Otolaryngology has co-authored a landmark ar...
07/17/2025

We are proud to share that Dr. Fan-Gang Zeng of the UC Irvine Department of Otolaryngology has co-authored a landmark article published in this month’s edition of Nature Medicine, one of the world’s most prestigious scientific journals.

The paper presents results from the first multicenter clinical trial of gene therapy for hereditary deafness, specifically targeting mutations in OTOF, a gene crucial to the transmission of information from the ear to the brain. Involving ten patients ranging from 1.5 to 23.9 years old, the study demonstrates both the safety and efficacy of an AAV-OTOF vector injection.

The findings are remarkable:

· All participants tolerated the gene therapy procedure well, with no serious adverse events reported.

· Most notably, the intervention restored hearing in individuals previously diagnosed with complete deafness, improving thresholds to the level of moderate hearing loss (approximately 50 dB HL).

· Hearing gains occurred rapidly—largely within the first month of treatment.

This work also breaks new ground in demonstrating successful bilateral and repeat injections, with encouraging results in adolescents and adults, expanding the potential scope of future treatment.

Dr. Zeng’s contribution marks a significant milestone in auditory neuroscience and therapeutic innovation. These promising findings not only deepen our understanding of gene therapy’s biological mechanisms but also offer real clinical hope to individuals with hereditary hearing loss.

Congratulations to Dr. Zeng on this exceptional achievement and the recognition it brings to UC Irvine Department of Otolaryngology’s leadership in hearing and communication sciences.

The UCI School of Medicine Otolaryngology Department is co-hosting an evening event along with UCI’s Center for Neural C...
07/16/2025

The UCI School of Medicine Otolaryngology Department is co-hosting an evening event along with UCI’s Center for Neural Circuit Mapping. The "Art of Science," a special ticketed event held supplementary to the 2025 CNCM Conference: The Changing Brain, will take place on August 19, 2025, with art submissions and a performance by the Pacific Symphony Orchestra.

The "Art of Science" event will be held at the Irvine Marriott and will feature artists, performers, and talks from field professionals to highlight the powerful intersection between artistic expression and scientific discovery. Attendees will get the opportunity to connect with one another and explore the ways in which the two disciplines work together to foster community and innovation.

Event registration is now open until August 8, 2025!

Promo video: https://bit.ly/4lQYCNt

View the agenda and forms for registration and art submissions here: https://bit.ly/4kBB5Pq

The UCI Department of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery is pleased to announce the appointment of Tjoson Tjoa, MD, as...
07/09/2025

The UCI Department of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery is pleased to announce the appointment of Tjoson Tjoa, MD, as Guyton-Gatton Endowed Chair. Having served as Interim Chair since 2022, his leadership has led to a 30% growth in the department, which includes 19 full-time faculty as of the 2025-26 academic year, two additional sites of practice, located in Irvine and Brea, and an expanded residency, funded for 15 full-time trainees and with access to a brand new, state-of-the-art skull base and microvascular training lab.

Dr. Tjoa joined UC Irvine in 2016 after completing a fellowship at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear at Harvard Medical School. He currently serves as an Associate Professor who specializes in head and neck cancer and microvascular reconstruction. He previously served as residency program director for the department, and has a keen interest in patient, medical student and resident education. He has received numerous clinical and teaching awards throughout his career and has championed diversity, obtaining funding for and initiating one of the first underrepresented in medicine grants for medical students interested in otolaryngology.

Dr. Tjoa's research focus is on HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer, and he is currently a Co-Principal Investigator on a multidisciplinary spatial genomic and transcriptomic project to characterize various head & neck cancers. He serves on the education committee for the Society for University Otolaryngologists and on the scientific programming committee for the American Head & Neck Society.

Dr. Tjoa is a graduate of UC Berkeley and received his medical degree from Virginia Commonwealth University. He completed an internship in general surgery followed by a residency in head and neck surgery at the UC Irvine School of Medicine prior to completing a fellowship in head & neck surgical oncology and microvascular reconstruction.

Congratulations to Dr. Tjoson Tjoa in his new, permanent role as chair!

Dr. Stabenau represented UC Irvine and the commercial space industry at the 2025 Humans to the Moon and Mars Summit at T...
06/20/2025

Dr. Stabenau represented UC Irvine and the commercial space industry at the 2025 Humans to the Moon and Mars Summit at The George Washington University in Washington, DC. She participated in an interdisciplinary panel discussing the physical and mental wellbeing of the first human crew to Mars, including the current engineering and design challenges and future work required to ensure the safety and success of this historic mission. They discussed the limitations of current medical models and difficulty in designing a medical system for such an ambitious mission.

Calls to action included the need for more research in human spaceflight environments closer to home, such as Low Earth Orbit and the Moon, as well as terrestrial analog environments. Additionally, the panel called for a culture shift in human spaceflight, moving away from pushing humans to their limits in systems designed for survival and towards creating an environment in which humans can thrive despite being so far from our home of six million years.

Congratulations to Annette Mino, a rising second-year UCI medical student, who was a recipient of the John Tu and Edward...
06/18/2025

Congratulations to Annette Mino, a rising second-year UCI medical student, who was a recipient of the John Tu and Edward Uchio Academic Research Fellowship for her project evaluating spatial genomic and transcriptomic mapping of head & neck tumors with Dr. Tjoson Tjoa. The fellowship is meant to provide a summer research scholarship for a UCI medical student to perform a dedicated project and present findings at a national society meeting. Annette, who has an interest in Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, will perform her work under Dr. Tjoa's guidance in conjunction with UCI's Center for Neural Circuit Mapping and will help to elucidate molecular mechanisms of head & neck tumors and ultimately provide therapeutic insights.

Six of our faculty were named "ENT (Otolaryngology) Research All‑Stars" for 2025 by Avant-Garde Health:Top 1%: Dr. Edwar...
06/12/2025

Six of our faculty were named "ENT (Otolaryngology) Research All‑Stars" for 2025 by Avant-Garde Health:

Top 1%: Dr. Edward Kuan, Dr. Brian Wong
Top 2-3%: Dr. William Armstrong, Dr. Yarah Haidar
Top 4-5%: Dr. Tjoson Tjoa, Dr. Hamid Djalilian

Avant-Garde Health awards doctors and hospitals across the country based on quantity and quality of published Otolaryngology research.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Khushi Bhatt, MS1 and her mentor Dr. Mehdi Abouzari who received a NIA T35 Summer Medical Student Agi...
05/30/2025

Congratulations to Khushi Bhatt, MS1 and her mentor Dr. Mehdi Abouzari who received a NIA T35 Summer Medical Student Aging & Alzheimer Disease Research Training (SMAART) program grant, and the summer RAMP award funded by Hilarity for Charity and Dr. Lorna Carlin. In this project, they will explore the association between hearing loss, tinnitus, and dementia.

Address

101 The City Drive South, Pavilion II
Orange, CA
92868

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm

Telephone

+18002639547

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