Personal information
Paul Merkus
From 2003, Paul Merkus (MD PhD), is staf member at the VU University Medical Center at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery. His special interest in Otology and Skull Base.
He has been a fellow at the Gruppo Otologico in Piacenza, Italy in 2009 and since then he is a faculty member of the annual international Middle Ear course and Skull Base course at the same clinic. At present there is a ongoing scientific collaboration with the Gruppo Otologico (Professor Mario Sanna), leading to high standard peer reviewed papers.
In the Netherlands he is an active member of the CION (Cochlear Implant Overleg Nederland) and one of the main earsurgeons in the VUmc Cochlear Implant team. He performed the first implantation on a child in Amsterdam (2003) and in 2010 he operated the youngest child in the world to receive a cochlear implant. In 2009-2010 he managed to originate the ‘Dutch CION consensus protocol on hearing evaluation following bacterial meningitis’. Several key publications on cochlear implantation followed. Each year he is co-host of a symposium on Children with Sensorineural Hearing Loss (2010: etiology finding, 2011: postmeningitis hearing loss)
In 2012 he will be one of the authors, in collaboration with prof Sanna, of a new international guideline book for ENT surgeons “Cochlear Impantation and other Auditory Implants”. Also in 2012 his team starts a PhD project on “Decision making in difficult cochlear implant cases’.
Research topics:
- Cochlear implantation, surgical aspects & indications (like otosclerosis and postmeningitis)
- Auditory Brainstem Impantation, surgical aspects & indications
- Sensorineural hearing loss in children: Etiology finding/ diagnostical work-up and imaging