Introduction
Dr LM Hofmeyr (Louis Murray Hofmeyr) qualified as a medical doctor (MBChB) at the University of Pretoria (UP) in 1993. He has managed more than 800 patients with vestibular schwannomas (acoustic neuromas), one of Africa’s most extensive case series. He has performed over 400 cochlear implants, including all three devices currently on the South African market. Dr Hofmeyr has been elected Chairman of the South African Cochlear Implant Group (SACIG) from 2024 to 2026. He also described and managed the first patient in South Africa with superior canal dehiscence syndrome (SCDS) in 2006 and has since treated and operated on more than 200 patients with SCDS.
Memberships and interests
Dr Hofmeyr is a member of the South African Society of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery (SA ENT Society) and The South African Cochlear Implant Group (SACIG).
He is a founder member and director of Cape Hearing Implants (CHi), a non-profit company specialising in cochlear implants and other implantable hearing devices. His other interests include vertigo, dizziness, balance problems, ear disease, hearing loss, Bell’s palsy, tinnitus and the rare genetic condition sclerosteosis. Dr Hofmeyr has a particular interest in all types of inner ear surgery.
Dr Hofmeyr, the Cape Hearing Implants (CHi) team and The University of Cape Town are members of the worldwide HEARRING Group, the only centre in Africa.
Early years and training
He is the only South African surgeon who performs middle cranial fossa temporal bone surgery.
Dr Hofmeyr performed his internship at 1 Military Hospital in Pretoria, whereafter he started
working in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology (ENT). In 2000, he qualified as a specialist in ENT under Prof Johannes Swart, obtaining the MMED (ENT) degree at UP.
Working at 1 Military Hospital in Pretoria and The Institute for Aviation Medicine (IAM) in Centurion, he became Chief ENT Specialist and Head of the Department of ENT and Chief ENT Surgeon of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) in 2006. At IAM, Dr Hofmeyr was one of the first specialists trained and utilising video nystagmography (VNG) in South Africa and still performs these vestibular tests today.
Military and academical career
In 2011, he was appointed as adjunct professor of ENT at UP. In 2012, he resigned from the SANDF with the military rank of lieutenant colonel (Lt. Col.) and commenced full-time private practice in Pretoria and Cape Town. By 2022, he had consolidated his two practices, and now, he only practices in Cape Town. He is currently appointed as a part-time consultant and lecturer at the Stellenbosch University (SU) and has been a member of the Cape Town Temporal Bone Course faculty for more than ten years. Dr Hofmeyr was part of the team that performed the first cochlear implant surgery at Groote Schuur Academical Hospital in Cape Town and is still involved with teaching courses at the hospital.
Experience and international training
Dr LM Hofmeyr has worked exclusively in neurotology and otology for 23 years. He attended numerous international courses and trained at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles, USA, under Prof Ugo Fisch in Zurich, Switzerland. Dr (Prof) Herman Hamersma and Prof Andre Claassen played a pivotal role in his development and surgical training in South Africa.
Teaching and training
Teaching and training ENT doctors and audiologists have always been his passion, and he has set up and hosted numerous teaching courses in South Africa. Since qualifying as a specialist, he has been involved with research at the University of Pretoria and, lately, as a Research Associate at the Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology at UP. Despite being mainly in private practice, he has published in numerous international peer-reviewed scientific journals. He has also contributed chapters to books. Dr Hofmeyr is an editorial board member of the Frontiers in Neuro-otology journal.
Acknowledgements
In 2021, the SA ENT Society awarded a merit certificate to him for his academic and teaching contributions to the field of neurotology in South Africa. Dr Hofmeyr was awarded a lifelong honorary membership from The Austrian ENT Society in 2024.
Dr Hofmeyr is currently the only ENT specialist practising exclusively in otology and neurotology in Sub-Saharan Africa.