About us

Charles C. Della Santina specializes in surgery for treatment of hearing, balance and other ear disorders including otosclerosis, cholesteatoma, conductive and sensorineural hearing loss, acoustic neuroma/vestibular schwannoma, glomus and other tumors of the temporal bone, and other problems that cause hearing loss or abnormal vestibular (inner ear balance) sensation. He is the director of the Johns Hopkins Cochlear Implant Center. He performs acoustic neuroma surgery, cochlear implantation, stapes surgery, middle ear bone reconstruction, bone-conduction hearing device implantation, other middle ear and mastoid surgeries, removal of glomus and other temporal bone tumors, surgical treatment of temporal bone cerebrospinal fluid leaks and encephaloceles, and surgery for vestibular disorders including superior canal dehiscence syndrome, Meniere’s disease, bilateral loss of vestibular sensation, gentamicin ototoxicity and other disorders.

Dr. Della Santina earned a medical degree from the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine and a doctorate in biomedical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley College of Engineering. He completed residency training in otolaryngology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2002, and has served on the Johns Hopkins faculty since then.  

A biomedical engineer, electrical engineer and neurophysiologist, Dr. Della Santina founded and directs the Johns Hopkins Vestibular NeuroEngineering Lab. His research group focuses on developing a vestibular implant to treat chronic unsteadiness and oscillopsia (shaky vision during head movement) caused by gentamicin ototoxicity and other causes of bilateral vestibular hypofunction. His group’s world-leading research on vestibular implantation has been published in leading journals including the New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Della Santina's more than 140 publications also include studies of inner ear physiology and anatomy, new clinical tests of vestibular function, and the effects of cochlear implantation, superior canal dehiscence syndrome and gentamicin on the inner ear.

A biomedical engineer, electrical engineer and neurophysiologist, Dr. Della Santina founded and directs the Johns Hopkins Vestibular NeuroEngineering Lab. His research group focuses on developing a vestibular implant to treat chronic unsteadiness and oscillopsia (shaky vision during head movement) caused by gentamicin ototoxicity and other causes of bilateral vestibular hypofunction.

Dr. Della Santina's more than 110 publications also include studies of inner ear physiology and anatomy; new clinical tests of vestibular function; and the effects of cochlear implantation, superior canal dehiscence syndrome, and gentamicin on the inner ear.

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