Our Physicians
Donald C. Lanza, MD, MS, is a board certified ears, nose, and throat physician who is internationally recognized as a subspecialist called a “Rhinologist & Skull Base Surgeon”. Dr. Lanza sub-specializes in managing difficult health challenges affecting the nose, sinuses, orbits and the skull base.
He is an innovator of minimally invasive surgical techniques and has introduced or aided in the development of nearly a dozen surgical techniques. Dr. Lanza has more than 25 years experience with refractory sinusitis and complicated frontal and sphenoid sinus disease. He is among the first in the nation to present work on minimally invasive trans-nasal management of cerebrospinal fluid fistulas, orbital problems, and sinus/skull base tumors such as inverted papilloma, sinus cancers, and other skull base tumors.
Related to his educational background, clinical experience and innovation, Dr. Lanza was quoted by both the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal for his expert opinion on treatment of sinus diseases. He and one of his patients were the subject of a Tampa Tribune news article regarding curative minimally invasive surgery for a rare sinus cancer. Related to his success as a surgeon, Donald C. Lanza, MD has been listed in “Best Doctors in America” continually since 1994 and in “Top Doctors in America for Cancer” since 2006.
In 2011 he was acknowledged by Castle & Connolly as being ranked nationally among the top 1% within his specialty according to his peers. His work on sinusitis has been referenced by the Food & Drug Administration. Dr. Lanza has over 125 publications with nearly 100 in the peer-reviewed literature.
As an educator, Dr. Lanza has been invited to 6 continents and 24 countries to present hundreds of lectures. Dr. Lanza has been the course director for more than 30 continuing medical education programs including two held in St Petersburg, FL (2010, 2012) and he was the host for 2 international meetings on nasal and sinus disorders. He is a winner of the prestigious “Golden Head Mirror Award” for meritorious teaching and the “Life Time Achievement Award” for his contributions to the American Rhinologic Society. Additionally, he was awarded as the “Otolaryngology Teacher of the Year” by the residents in 1998 at the University of Pennsylvania and again at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in 2004.
In 2009, he received the “Distinguished Service Award” from the AAO-HNS to acknowledge his commitment to that organization. In 2012 he was an invited speaker at the prestigious Annual Kennedy Lecture for the American Rhinologic Society.
Administratively, Dr. Don Lanza is past-president of the American Rhinologic Society (2002-3) and sat on the Board of Directors for the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery (2007-2011). He was an invited guest examiner for the American Board of Otolaryngology in 2008 and 2015.
Since establishing the Sinus & Nasal Institute of Florida in 2004, Dr. Lanza served on the Board of Directors for St. Anthony’s Hospital Foundation and is currently the division head of otolaryngology for St. Anthony’s Hospital (2010-2015).