UC Davis ear, nose and throat specialist honored for service, leadership

Travis Tollefson, associate professor of otolaryngology at UC Davis Health System, received an Honors Award from the American Academy of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery yesterday at the academy's 2012 annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

The Honors Awards recognize extensive meritorious service to the academy through the presentation of instructional courses and scientific papers, and participation on academy committees or leadership positions. Tollefson has moderated an annual seminar on innovations in cleft lip repair for the last five years. He also volunteers with international outreach and contributes to the Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Committee by writing resident training materials.

Travis Tollefson

Tollefson specializes in facial reconstructive surgery for children and adults, including cleft lip and palate, facial injuries after trauma or after Moh's skin cancer surgery. He also performs rhinoplasty and facial aesthetic surgery procedures, including facelifts and brow lifts.

As medical director of a volunteer cleft lift and palate surgical team, he has partnered with the University of Zimbabwe Medical School to care for children with facial deformities. The goal of the partnership is facilitate educational exchange and research, and to foster a multidisciplinary specialty surgical team in Zimbabwe. One of these research projects aims to reduce disparities in access to surgery in rural areas of Zimbabwe using geocoding to create a national geospatial distribution map of cleft lip deformities. 

Tollefson also conducts leading-edge research to improve patient care. His studies have shown that artificial muscles can restore the ability of patients with facial paralysis to blink, a development that could benefit the thousands of people each year who no longer are able to close their eyelids due to combat-related injuries, stroke, nerve injury or facial surgery. In addition, the technique, which uses a combination of electrode leads and silicon polymers, could be used to develop synthetic muscles to control other parts of the body. He has recently begun testing the potential application of this technology to prosthetic eyelids.

Tollefson has published more than 41 papers in academic journals and over 10 book chapters on facial reconstruction.