Chester Griffiths, MD, Celebrating 35 Years In Practice

A Legacy of Excellence

Chester F. Griffiths, MD, FACS, has a knack for making people feel at ease right away. His welcoming manner and friendly disposition belie his considerable and formidable surgical skills, experience and expertise. Among his achievements, Dr. Griffiths is one of the four co-founders of Pacific Neuroscience Institute® (PNI). He is a professor of surgery at the Saint John’s Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, California and is chief of endoscopic sinonasal and skull base surgery at PNI, Providence Saint John’s Health Center. He is the lead ENT surgeon in endoscopic endonasal pituitary and skull base surgeries, and provides post-operative sinus care to patients at the Pacific Pituitary Disorders Center.

Taking Care of ENT Patients

Rated among the top ENT (Ear, nose, throat – head & neck) surgeons in Los Angeles, Dr. Griffiths’ Pacific Head & Neck practice focuses on treatment of facial and nasal trauma, cosmetic deformities, sinus infections, and disorders of smell and taste. He is the official team maxillofacial plastic surgeon for the Los Angeles Kings and is a long-time volunteer with the Venice Family Clinic where he received the Irma Cohen Leadership Award in 2012 in recognition of his services.

Born in New York City, Dr. Griffiths attended medical school at Universidad Central del Este (UCE) in the Dominican Republic. Astoundingly, he was licensed to practice medicine in 1983 when he was only 21 years old. He went on to complete a 3-year residency in general surgery and an additional 3-year residency in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the prestigious Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Dr. Griffiths completed a visiting fellowship in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with world-renowned plastic surgeon, Dr. Ivo Pitanguy, and began his professional career with his father Cadvan Owen Griffiths Jr., MD, in 1989. Double board certified in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Dr. Griffiths is also an Assistant Clinical Professor at Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

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Taking a Deep Dive into What Drives Dr. Griffiths

We sat down with Dr. Griffiths to learn more about his illustrious career spanning 35 years as one of the most beloved ENT surgeons in Los Angeles.

PNI: Before we dive in, congratulations on 35 years of practice in Southern California!

CG: Thank you. In September 2024, it is the anniversary of 35 years in practice in Santa Monica and West Los Angeles. It has been a huge honor and pleasure. Honestly, I can’t believe it.

What is exciting you these days in your ENT practice?

Over recent years we have been building up our hearing restoration capabilities. Our cochlear implant program continues to grow and thrive under the leadership of Courtney Voelker, MD, PhD, and Rebecca Lewis, AuD. The Hearing Aid Recycling Program (HARP) helps get hearing resources to those who need them. We launched CELEBRATE at the end of 2023. It is an integrated holistic approach to living a full life as we age. We guide patients through hearing restoration, and in collaboration with Karen Miller, PhD, and her brain wellness and lifestyle team, we help implement lifestyle interventions to enhance longevity and quality of life. Finally, I’m proud to announce our Speech-Language Pathology capabilities for patients with a wide array of difficulties.

What inspired you to choose your career path?

My father, Dr. Cadvan Owen Griffiths Jr, is a great inspiration, mentor and friend to me. He is a renaissance man with accomplishments beyond medicine and surgery as a lawyer, screenwriter, Naval flight surgeon, Korean War Veteran with the U.S. Marine Corps and a philanthropist supporting plastic surgery clinics at the Christian College of Vellore in India.

As a researcher, he had a bench lab at Columbia University and the Rockefeller Institute in New York, where he participated in early cancer immunologic research. He was co-research developer of Rho-D immune globulin (RHO-GAM) to prevent erythroblastosis fetalis (a hemolytic disease of newborns). He was particularly interested in homograft stimulation of the immune system in cancer patients. He was an early pioneer in breast reconstruction, having published submuscular implantation of silicone breast implants for both immediate cancer reconstruction and for cosmetic enhancement in the mid 1960’s, contrary to the practice norm of radical mastectomy as the definitive treatment for breast cancer. With his example, I have been inspired to continue in his footsteps.

Were there any transformational experiences that led you to being a doctor?

I suffered from an undiagnosed aliment as a child and was treated by the doctors of Providence Saint John’s for 3 years between the ages of 6 and 9. Although a diagnosis was never made, I did recover and decided that I would become a physician to care for those in need. To fulfill that promise, I was licensed to practice medicine by the age of 21. I was the original Doogie Howser! The physicians and nurses who cared for me during those difficult times made a lasting impact on me and were the catalyst for my desire to become a physician.

What is the focus of your current research and/or practice?

1. Study and practice of the anatomic basis of minimally invasive endoscopic endonasal skull base tumor removal with Dr. Daniel Kelly and Dr. Garni Barkhoudarian. In collaboration with Dr. Howard Krauss, neuro-ophthalmologist, we were the first to successfully remove an orbital (eye) apex tumor through the nose utilizing endoscopic techniques in 2001. Since that time, we have utilized these techniques on many patients.
2. Preservation of olfactory function (smell) following nasal-skull base surgery.
3. Assessment of viral impact on the development of head and neck cancer, principally that of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV).
4. Packing-less nasal surgical procedures.
5. Centers of Excellence development with emphasis on expertise team building, financial efficiency and patient clinical outcome data analysis.
6. Cochlear implantation for hearing restoration in collaboration with Courtney Voelker, MD, PhD, and Rebecca Lewis, AuD.
7. Integrating brain wellness and lifestyle interventions into a holistic continuum of patient care in partnership with Karen Miller, PhD, and her team (CELEBRATE program).
8. Growing our Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) unit.

What brought you to Saint John’s Cancer Institute?

Dr. Kelly and I collaborated together at UCLA, developing techniques of minimally invasive endoscopic endonasal skull base surgery prior to his joining Saint John’s Cancer Institute. We have continued this innovative collaboration at the Pacific Brain Tumor Center at the Pacific Neuroscience Institute where have performed more than 500 such excisions of skull base brain tumors. I currently hold a faculty position at the Institute as a Professor of Surgery for the neurosurgical fellowship training program. Each year we deliver specialty training in the latest endoscopic techniques for brain and pituitary tumor removal.

Tell us about your volunteer work.

Aside from my clinical, teaching and research endeavors, I am on the Board of Directors of the Venice Family Clinic, the largest free clinic in America, with over 100,000 patient visits a year at 10 clinic locations. I have been treating the patients (children and adults) of the clinic for 30 years for aliments involving the ear, nose and throat. Providence Saint John’s has been a strong supporter of the Venice Family Clinic, donating in-kind services for close to 50 years.

In addition to medically treating the Venice Family Clinic patients, I perform surgical procedures in our operating room at Pacific Head and Neck. My colleague, Dr. Gregory Frazer, offers free hearing aids to hard-of-hearing patients and Dr. Howard Krauss provides vision and eye care. I am so proud to be part of a committed, selfless group of volunteers, corporate and community members, and physicians who believe that it is important to care for those in need. This is truly unique.

Regardless of national boundaries, compassionate service to all has been a part of the mission of the Providence Health System since the Sisters of Providence and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange began their work to touch lives wherever relief, comfort and care are needed most. In September 2019, I embarked on a seven-day mission to Guatemala and performed 28 ENT surgeries in 4 days.

Although research is a very important mission of a physician-scientist, treating all members of our community trumps that mission as the primary purpose of being a physician. I am very grateful for the healthcare community on the Westside and the philanthropic support from donors. They provide a great example of compassionate caring with attention to scientific breakthroughs for the benefit of our citizens.

What do you see as the future of your field?

I believe that stem cell application in regenerative therapeutics and molecular genomic-driven targeted therapies are the forefront of medical discovery. Along with the collaborative energy of neuro-oncologist, Dr. Santosh Kesari, Drs. Kelly, Krauss and I created the Pacific Neuroscience Institute® (PNI). The evolution of treatment for patients at PNI is the driver of innovation and discovery. Compassion and care are the first hallmark of our mission, followed by dedication to study, discovery and innovation.

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