Alexandra M Arambula, MD

Dr. Alexandra Arambula is a neurotologist, an otolaryngologist who specializes in the treatment of disorders affecting the ear and lateral skull base. She sees pediatric and adult patients and works closely in a multidisciplinary team with nurses and audiologists to provide comprehensive and compassionate care to all her patients.

Her clinical practice medically and surgically addresses a wide spectrum of diseases, including: 1) chronic ear disease leading to chronic drainage or a trapped skin cyst (chronic otitis media, cholesteatoma); 2) holes in the ear drum (tympanic membrane perforation); 3) hearing loss due to abnormal movement of the hearing bones (otosclerosis, lateral chain fixation, ossicular chain malformations); 4) hearing loss affecting the inner ear (sensorineural hearing loss, single-sided deafness, sudden hearing loss); 5) balance (vestibular) disorders (Meniere’s disease, superior semicircular canal dehiscence syndrome, benign paroxysmal positional vertigo [“crystals in the ear”]); 6) lateral skull base tumors (such as vestibular schwannoma, glomus jugulotympanicum, meningioma, carcinomas involving the ear canal and temporal bone); 7) skull base defects leading to leakage of brain fluid or herniation of brain tissue into the ear space (cerebrospinal fluid otorrhea, encephalocele).

Some of the surgeries she performs include tympanoplasty (rebuilding the ear drum) with/without mastoidectomy (shaving the bone behind the ear to remove disease), ossicular chain reconstruction (rebuilding the hearing bones), stapedectomy (replacing the third hearing bone in otosclerosis), bone anchored hearing device placement, cochlear implantation (with an emphasis on hearing preservation), endolymphatic sac surgery, labyrinthectomy, and superior semicircular canal dehiscence surgery. She is the only provider in the city that performs endoscopic ear surgery, which can offer a less invasive surgical approach for patients with challenging anatomy whose disease is suitable for use of the endoscope. In addition to these ear surgeries, she partners with neurosurgeons and head and neck surgeons to remove various tumors and repair bony defects of the lateral skull base.

Dr. Arambula obtained her medical degree from Vanderbilt University and completed her Otolaryngology residency training at the University of Kansas Medical Center. She completed a 2-year fellowship in Neurotology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, before returning to KU as faculty.