Otology (Ear) and Lateral Skull Base

Miss Munir is a senior consultant surgeon in adult ENT, Otology, Neurotology and Skull Base surgery at Aintree University Hospital, University Hospitals of Liverpool Group. She was apppointed in 2013 and at the time of her appointment, she was the only female ENT Lateral Skull Base Consultant Surgeon in the UK. She has been through UK training in all aspects of ENT and extensively trained in otology and the management of benign and malignant skull base and neurotology conditions. She has undertaken two world-renowned and competitive international fellowships in Toronto, Canada and Cambridge, UK. These are two prestigious world leading skull base units with the highest reputation for training leaders in the field. 

Her day-to-day clinical practice consists of an outpatient and surgical workload of otology, advanced otology, neurotology and benign and malignant lateral skull base cases. She receives specialist and tertiary referrals from the Merseyside, Cheshire & North Wales regions as well as the Isle of Man, a total catchment population of 3.1 million people. She provides specialist expert ENT support to The Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery and undertakes joint complex skull base surgical procedures at the regional neurosurgical centre. She provides a regional complex parotid surgery service, managing the most difficult salivary cases referred from the region as well as from other consultants within the unit. Her outcomes for this work are world class and have been presented at prestigious international meetings, including the American Association of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. 

She is the regional head and neck paraganglioma MDT chair, which she set up in 2018 to ensure safe care with all appropriate governance for these complex and rare tumours. She has been the Past-Chair of the regional Skull Base MDT and continues to be a core member of the MDT. During her tenure as the MDT chair, she lead the clinical activity of the MDT, working to agreed Network guidelines, ensuring a high quality of integrated services which meet local, regional and national standards. She successfully lead the team through a rigorous National NHS Peer Review process. She established and ran several Annual Liverpool Skull Base Group meetings, ensuring all guidelines and policies were discussed as well as auditing the MDT’s activities and outcomes. She continues to contribute to the National Vestibular Schwannoma Audit.

She has a significant and varied education portfolio. She is the current Training Programme Director for Trainees Requiring Extra Support for the North West School of Surgery, and was until recently the Royal College of Surgeons of England surgical tutor for the Trust. She has set up, leads and teaches on the Merseyside temporal bone dissection courses for a number of years, educating well over 150 worldwide trainees. She teaches on all aspects of temporal bone anatomy, surgical approaches and hearing rehabilitation. She is invited faculty to national training meetings and training courses. She has published peer review articles as well as written and edited books and is the current Lateral Skull Base section editor for the upcoming 9th edition of Scott Brown Otorhinolarynology, which is the definitive British textbook for ENT. She is also the Section Editor for Journal Reviews for ENT and Audiology News, an internationally renowned speciality magazine. She was the Northwest deanery Speciality Training Education Committee Chair from 2020 – 2023, and sits on the Liverpool Head and Neck Centre education committee as the regional Otology representative. Day to day, she is a GMC accredited educational and clinical supervisor, providing training and supervision for all grades of junior medical staff. She undertakes formal teaching for undergraduate and postgraduate medical trainees as well as allied health professionals. Through her continued supervision, support and guidance several of her trainees have been successful in securing prestigious fellowships and consultant posts in otology and skull base surgery, including two further female Lateral Skull Base ENT Surgeons that have now been appointed in England.

She is the departmental governance lead, ensuring that the procedures and processes are implemented and adhered to ensure patient safety is of the highest order, as well as being the handler for any clinical incidents that arise within the department. She has undertaken significant development of the skull base service over her consultant career, ensuring that contemporary and modern practices are implemented and that outcomes are audited in order to meet the exacting standards our patients deserve. Her primary focus has always been and shall always remain, provision of the best possible care to all her patients.

Mr Youssef graduated from medical school in the year 2000 from Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. In 2008, He finished his ENT specialist training in Egypt, and worked as a lecturer of ENT in Ain Shams University where he was a member of the Skull Base Team and head of the Balance unit in the university.

He moved to the UK in 2010, when he gained further experience in Otology and Skull Base in Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. In 2012, Mr Youssef moved to Liverpool as an ENT consultant and gained further experience in Lateral Skull Base.

He is currently working as an ENT Consultant with special interest in Otology, Lateral Skull Base Surgery and Dizziness and he is the lead of Balance services in Liverpool University Hospitals.