Doctor Nadine de Alwis

Dr Nadine de Alwis was awarded fellowship of The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS) in 2017 and became a member of The Australian Society of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery (ASOHNs).Following this, she commenced an ENT consultant position in Cairns, QLD and worked in both the private and public sector. There she gained a vast generalist adult and paediatric ENT experience, in particular otological issues affecting the indigenous and rural communities. In 2019 Dr Nadine de Alwis moved to Sydney to complete fellowship training in Neurotology at St Vincent’s Private and Public hospital in Darlinghurst. Her surgical mentors were Assoc Prof Nigel Biggs, Dr Sean Flanagan and Dr Phillip Chang. Dr de Alwis performed an array of complex otological procedures such as mastoidectomy, stapedectomy, cochlear implants, bone conduction hearing implants and acoustic neuroma(vestibular schwannoma) surgery. Upon return to Melbourne in 2020 Dr de Alwis gained further experience in lateral skull base and vestibular schwannoma surgery at Austin Health and Monash health under the guidance Dr Jean Marc Gerard and Dr Michael Gordon respectively. She was also mentored closely by Associate Prof Vincent Cousins and took over his role as neurotologist at Alfred Health upon his retirement in June 2023. Dr de Alwis has been a practising neurotologist/lateral skull base surgeon at Alfred Health since 2020 - she holds regular skull base multidisciplinary meetings to discuss management of such cases and other disorders of the temporal bone. She is one of very few Victorian ENT surgeons that has significant experience in endoscopic ear surgery and performs the majority of myringoplasty and cholesteatomasurgery entirely endoscopically. Dr de Alwis has a keen interest in sudden sensorineural hearing loss. She has the facilities to perform grommets and intratympanic steroid injections under local anaesthetic (awake in rooms procedure) and has a strong relationship with the hyperbaric unit at Alfred Health. Dr de Alwis offers all available brands of hearing implants to her patients. She is the first surgeon in Victoria to implant Advanced Bionics (AB) cochlear implants and has performed the most of this particular brand in Victoria. She also offers Cochlear, Medel and Oticon hearing implant devices to her patients and is happy to discuss all options. Education plays an integral role in Dr de Alwis’ life. She works at three public hospitals and spends a considerable amount of time teaching the ENT registrars and junior staff. She previously ran the temporal bone dissection lab at Monash Health and has edited several book chapters on ENT emergency surgery.