Skull base surgery is surgery that is done to remove a tumor or other growth at the base, or bottom, of the skull.

Minimally invasive skull base surgery, also called endoscopic skull base surgery, is a surgical technique that lets doctors do this delicate surgery through the nose.
Since tumors of the skull base sit underneath the brain, it can be difficult during surgery to get to the tumor in order to remove it. Traditional techniques used to approach tumors of the brain itself can be used to approach skull base tumors, but these often require significant force to retract the patient’s brain out of the way. This may lead to unwanted injury to otherwise normal brain tissue.