Alexander Langerman, MD, FACS, Assistant Professor of Surgery, gives an overview of his role and department.
ALEXANDER LANGERMAN: My name is Alexander Langerman. And I'm a head and neck surgeon here at the University of Chicago Medicine. I'm a assistant professor in the section of otolaryngology, head and neck surgery, which is actually a pretty broad field. You have people who are specialists in sinuses and hearing. I'm a specialist in a few things. I focus on had neck tumors and other sort of major head and neck procedures. I also focus on some minimally invasive head and neck procedures such as Zenker's diverticulum repair or sleep apnea treatment. And then additionally, I'm trained and regularly practice microvascular reconstruction, which is sort of the exact polar opposite. It's kind of maximally invasive surgery. So when a patient needs a major open surgery, I will use other tissue from either locally or other parts of the body to reconstruct that area to give the patient better function. Well we have a really great team in the Department of Surgery and in my section of otolaryngology head and neck surgery. And one of the great things is that there's no real barriers to collaboration. So I had a patient the other day that really required the assistance of an orthopedic surgeon. I just got on the phone and called one of my colleagues, and we made a plan together for that patient and helped get them to the OR for a team surgery. So I would say it's a really excellent working environment from that standpoint.
