Ivan El-Sayed, MD
Professor
Otolaryngology
School of Medicine

ivan.el-sayed@ucsf.edu 415-885-7528

Ivan H. El-Sayed, MD, is Professor of Clinical Otolaryngology and the Director of the Otolaryngology Minimally Invasive Skull Base Surgery program and center in the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery (OHNS) at the University of California, San Francisco.

Show full bio (860 words) Hide full bio

As of 2015, he has been elected to the North American Skull Base Society Directors Board, and he is recently named the Vice Chair of the American Academy of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery Skull Base Committee. He has also been the Co-Course Director for UCSF Resident Skull Base Approaches Course since 2009, and UCSF Head and Neck Oncology Update Course since 2015. Dr. El-Sayed completed his medical degree and internship from Boston University School of Medicine in Massachusetts. He completed his otolaryngology residency from Boston University, followed by a head and neck surgical oncology fellowship from UCSF. He lectures nationally and internationally on various topics related to head and neck oncology.

Dr. El-Sayed’s clinical focus is skull base surgery and he has developed the minimally invasive program into a nationally recognized program along with his neurosurgical colleagues. The program and center offers a unique capability of providing both endoscopic and open approaches to tailor the approach to the lesion. He has a broad surgical experience having performed over 500 surgical procedures on tumors of the nasal cavity/paranasal sinuses, infratemporal fossa, skull base and pituitary glands in over a decade of experience. He is also interested in the outcomes of research and clinical innovations through novel approach development. His research interest include 1)Rapid detection of chemo/radiosensitivity using a High Throughput system, 2)Nano-therapeutics, 3)3D and Virtual Anatomy for education and surgical planning in skull base and head and neck surgery.

Dr. El-Sayed has published as first or senior author on topics in literature including skull base repair, endoscopic approaches to the maxilla and infratemporal fossa, surgical planning and approaches to the clivus and craniovertebral junction, as well as lesions of the clivus and sella. He is a reviewer for a variety of scientific journals, and he has contributed to over 50 peer-reviewed articles, 10 book chapters, and 2 patents. As of 2015, his work has been cited over 11,000 times in the literature.

Specialty: Head and Neck Surgical Oncology, Minimally Invasive Skull Base Surgery, Salivary Gland Surgery, Sinus Surgery and Rhinology (tumors), CSF leak Closure.

Expertise: Skull base malignancy, oral cancer, paranasal sinus tumors, parapharyngeal space tumors (schwannomas, carotid body tumor, paraganglioma), oral cancer, parotid gland cancer, advanced skin cancers, tumors of the paranasal sinuses, nasopharynx cancer, clivus, and endoscopic surgery

Professional Interests: Oral cancer, tumors of the salivary gland, neck and jaw and skull base surgery. Skull base surgery is a branch of head and neck oncology. Dr. El-Sayed’s research interests is in developing, techniques to treat oral cancer with nanotechnology and minimally invasive surgical approaches to remove tumors from complex anatomic regions in the skull base which include the parotid gland, the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses, the parapharyngeal space and infratemporal fossa (which includes mandibular tumors, salivary tumors, schwannomas, carotid body tumor, paragangliomas etc). A variety of tumors occur in the nasal cavity that may require endoscopic surgery or an open surgical approach such as sinonasal squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, adenoid cystic cancer, esthesioneuroblastoma, sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma, chondrosarcoma, osteosarcoma, sinonasal melanoma, recurrent nasopharynx cancers, and others. Several nonmalignant tumors occur in this area that are amenable to endoscopic resections such as juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma and inverted papilloma. Dr. El-Sayed frequently cares for patients requiring multidisciplinary teams such as otologic surgery for tumors involving the temporal bone, and neurological surgery for tumors crossing into the intracranial cavity. Dr. El-Sayed also is expert in closure of defects of the skull base (CSF leaks)

Education and Training:

  • Medical School: Boston University School of Medicine, MA
  • Internship: Boston Medical Center, MA
  • Residency: Boston Medical Center, MA - Otolaryngology
  • Fellowship: University California San Francisco, CA - Head and Neck Surgical Oncology

Awards and Honors:

  • 1995 Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society.
  • 2002 U.S. Patent Office - Spectroscopic Diagnostics for Bacteria in Biologic Samples
  • 2003 University of California, San Francisco Medical Center - Thanks Star Award
  • 2007 Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University of California, San Francisco - Outstanding Productive Physician and Surgeon, Certificate of Accomplishment
  • 2007 ScienceWatch- Number 1 cited article in entire field of chemistry. . J Am Chem Soc. 2006 Feb 15;128(6):2115-2120.
  • 2007 Most Accessed Article for the 3rd quarter of 2007 for article, American Chemical Society Publications
  • 2007 Hot Paper- Nano Lett. 2005.
  • 2008 Most Accessed Article for first quarter 2008. J. Phys. Chem. B., 2006.
  • 2008 Editor Seleced Paper. Bioconjug Chem. 2007 Sep-Oct;18(5):1490-7.
  • 2008 Most Cited Author. Top 20 articles cited in Cancer Letters for 2007. Cancer Letters. 2006 Jul 28;239(1):129-35.
  • 2009 Top 25 Hottest Articles Cancer Letters in 2008- 2009: #14. Cancer Letters, Volume 269, Issue 1, September 2008, Pages 57-66
  • 2009 UCSF Academy of Medical Educators - Excellence In Teaching
  • 2010 Guangzhou Medical University - Honorary Professor
  • 2010-2014 Castle Connolly - America's Top Doctors
  • 2012 Number 1 Cited Paper from 2007 through May 2012. NanoToday.
  • 2011-2014 Marine Magazine - 415 Top Doctors
  • 2015 Director’s Board-North American Skull Base Society
  • 2015-2017 Vice Chair American Academy Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery Skull Base Committee. 2018-2020- Chair American Head and Neck Skull Base Section

Education & Training

Show all (3) Hide

  • Clinical Fellowship Otolaryngology University of California, San Francisco 2003
  • M.D. School of Medicine Boston University School of Medicine 1996
  • Sc B Neuroscience Brown University 1992

Websites

Show all (3) Hide

Publications (152)

Top publication keywords:
EndoscopyParanasal Sinus NeoplasmsPharyngeal NeoplasmsCerebrospinal Fluid LeakSkull BaseOtorhinolaryngologic Surgical ProceduresGoldSurgical FlapsNeuroendoscopyInfectious Disease Transmission, Patient-to-ProfessionalCervical VertebraeSkull Base NeoplasmsMouth NeoplasmsCarcinoma, Squamous CellNasal Cavity

Show all (147 more) Hide