George Wanna, M.D., assistant professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, has been named to receive the Harris P. Mosher Award from the American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society Inc., also known as the Triological Society.
The honor was created to “bestow upon a worthy recipient the responsibility of furthering the highest standards of perfection in the study, teaching and practice of Otolaryngology,” according to the society.
Wanna will be inducted into the society as an active fellow during ceremonies on Thursday, May 15, during the 117th Combined Otolaryngological Spring Meetings (COSM).
The Triological Society, the premier society for Otolaryngology, asks that its member candidates be at least three years in practice and submit a thesis. An eight-member peer committee reviews the thesis and a recommendation to accept or deny is submitted to the council. If the thesis is approved, the doctor is inducted into the society.
Wanna’s thesis, “The impact of electrode type and surgical approach on scalar electrode location and hearing outcomes in cochlear implantation,” describes how location of the cochlear implant affects hearing outcome.
There are three major approaches to inserting the implant — cochleostomy, round window and extended round window — and also two major types of electrodes; lateral wall and perimodiolar.
“To date no studies looked into the relationship between the surgical approaches, the implant type and the location of the implant in real patients,” Wanna said.
“This is simply due to technology limitation. From the collaboration with a team of engineers and surgeons through the Vanderbilt Initiative in Surgery and Engineering (ViSE), we were able to do that.”
Wanna and his colleagues enrolled 100 patients in the study and showed clear benefit of the round window insertion over the cochleostomy and the lateral wall implant over the perimodiolar implant, which is described for the first time.
“This will definitely impact the surgery in future as well as the implant technology,” Wanna said.