(Vienna, 02 May 2025) Christoph Arnoldner took up the Chair of Otorhinolaryngology (§98) at MedUni Vienna at the beginning of May. The internationally recognised expert in otology, skull base surgery and Head of the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Inner Ear Research is also taking over as Head of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the Medical University of Vienna.
The Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the Medical University of Vienna was the first ENT clinic in the world and celebrated its 150th anniversary two years ago. Today, the clinic is still one of the leading clinics in the world. The world's first multi-channel cochlear implant was once implanted in Vienna and to this day the hearing implants and especially the cochlear implant area are among the internationally recognised reference centres. Christoph Arnoldner, an internationally recognised expert in otology, hearing implants and skull base surgery, is taking over the clinic. Under his leadership, the clinic's international pioneering role in the field of hearing implants and otology will be consolidated and other areas such as head and neck oncology and rhinology will be strengthened.
Christoph Arnoldner was deputy head of the clinic until the end and founded the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Inner Ear Research in 2022. Research in this area established the minipig as a new large animal model for otological research, which has since been adopted by numerous research institutions. Furthermore, new active substances for the treatment of hearing disorders were researched, which have already found their way into clinical trials. This area of research is to be further strengthened over the next few years and the Vienna clinic will be actively involved in the clinical gene therapy trials currently underway for the treatment of hearing disorders. This will be made possible by intensive translational research with various domestic and foreign partner clinics and university institutions.
Another focus of the clinic is the outstanding training of doctors and students, which is regularly rated among the best at the university. This is primarily due to the training of many of the clinic's specialists in internationally accredited, one to two-year clinical fellowship programmes at top clinics in Canada, the USA, Australia and England. In fact, there is no other ENT clinic in Europe with such a high number of fellowship-trained specialists. This not only benefits training, but of course also patient care, which is at the highest international level in all areas of ENT medicine - otology, rhinology and head and neck surgery.
About the person
Christoph Arnoldner studied medicine in Vienna and Paris. He trained as an ear, nose and throat specialist at Hanover Medical School, the JW Goethe University Hospital in Frankfurt am Main and in Vienna. At the age of 30, he completed his habilitation on psychoacoustic studies with cochlear implants at MedUni Vienna. In 2012, Christoph Arnoldner completed a clinical fellowship at the University of Toronto in otology and skull base surgery. Back in Vienna, these areas were expanded and Vienna was established as a reference centre, and the fellowship programmes were also established for other clinical staff. In 2022, the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Inner Ear Research was founded. Christoph Arnoldner is a board member of the working group of German-speaking audiologists, otologists and neurootologists and a member of numerous national and international committees.