Last fall, the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center became the second facility in the country and third in the world to use a fully endoscopic surgical technique to remove an acoustic neuroma, a rare benign tumor on the balance and hearing nerves.

Patients are coming to the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center from around the globe, discovering the center’s world-class services through social media. One such person is Sophia Pafitis, who traveled to Vanderbilt last year from the Australian island of Tasmania.

To understand the phenomenal growth of research in the Department of Otolaryngology, step inside the S corridor on the second floor of Medical Center North. That is the location of the department’s gleaming new Laryngeal Biology Laboratory, which occupies the previous footprint of several smaller labs that have now been combined into a shared modern space.

Removing tonsils modestly reduced throat infections in the short term in children with moderate obstructive sleep-disordered breathing or recurrent throat infections, according to a systematic review conducted by the Vanderbilt Evidence-based Practice Center for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a sleep disorder in which people experience repetitive obstructions of their breathing multiple times per night. It is a common condition, and has been associated with many health problems including daytime tiredness, high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and stroke, said David Kent, M.D., assistant professor of Otolaryngology.

The Science of Song symposium explored the use of music and singing to help people with developmental disabilities like autism improve their social skills, and others with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) recover from the traumatic events they’ve experienced.

Blair School of Music will host a one-day symposium Sept. 12 called "The Science of Song."