Ear / Otology
- Modern cochlear implantation, including expanded use for adults with single-sided or asymmetric sensorineural hearing loss. The AAO-HNS currently endorses cochlear implantation for appropriately selected adults with these conditions.
- Robotic-assisted cochlear implantation, including image-guided planning, minimally invasive access, robotic electrode insertion, and technologies intended to improve precision and hearing preservation.
- Advanced lateral skull-base surgery, including approaches involving the petrous apex, vestibular schwannomas, temporal encephaloceles, CSF leaks, and superior semicircular canal dehiscence.
- Increasing use of AI, image guidance, computer vision, and advanced intraoperative visualization in otologic and lateral skull-base surgery.
Nose / Rhinology
- Endoscopic sinus and skull-base surgery, including increasingly sophisticated minimally invasive approaches.
- Computer-aided/image-guided surgery for complex sinus and skull-base anatomy; the AAO-HNS recognizes computer-aided surgery as an appropriate technology in selected sinus and skull-base procedures.
- Balloon sinus dilation and other minimally invasive sinus procedures. The AAO-HNS continues to address balloon dilation procedures within contemporary rhinology practice.
- AI-assisted rhinology, particularly automated CT analysis and endoscopic computer vision. A 2026 state-of-the-art review found automated sinus CT applications among the AI technologies closest to clinical workflow translation, while noting that many other applications still require prospective validation.
- Endoscopic skull-base and transorbital approaches, which increasingly overlap the fields of rhinology, otology, ophthalmology, and neurosurgery. The 2026 North American Skull Base Society program includes training and discussion of transorbital, endonasal, cavernous sinus, optic nerve, and anterior skull-base approaches.
Eye / Ophthalmology
- Minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS), including newer laser trabeculostomy techniques and procedures that can be combined with cataract surgery.
- 3D “heads-up” ophthalmic surgery, which allows surgeons to operate using advanced visualization systems rather than relying exclusively on conventional microscopes.
- Smaller-gauge vitrectomy systems and increasingly sophisticated microsurgical instruments.
- AI-assisted ophthalmic surgery, including surgical-phase recognition, instrument tracking, and outcome prediction.
- Robotic ophthalmic surgery, with research focused on extremely precise instrument stabilization and microsurgical maneuvers. Current evidence is promising, although much of the benefit demonstrated so far relates to technical performance and ergonomics rather than proven long-term patient outcomes.
