By Roger Härtl, MD
Director of Spine Surgery and Neurotrauma, Weill Cornell Medicine
Director, Weill Cornell Medicine Center for Comprehensive Spine Care
Earlier this month I was honored to serve as international faculty for a two-day seminar in Najaf, Iraq, sponsored by AOSpine Middle East. This was my third visit to Iraq for an AOSpine course, but my first time in Najaf. Although these teaching...
As a pediatric neurosurgeon, a large part of my job involves talking with anxious parents about their child’s upcoming surgery, and carrying families through a process they are never truly prepared for. As a parent myself, I cannot imagine how...
Philip E. Stieg, PhD, MD
Neurosurgeon-in-Chief
I know what to expect when I mention “awake craniotomy” to anyone – the very mention of undergoing brain surgery while awake usually makes people shudder. It’s not surprising, since we all like to keep our skull intact and our brain protected. The...
By Kenneth Perrine, PhD, ABPP-CN, and Amanda Sacks-Zimmerman, PhD, ABPP-CN
Neuropsychologists at Weill Cornell Medicine Neurological Surgery
Patients who are referred here for neurosurgery are often a bit confused when they’re scheduled for time with a neuropsychologist before or after surgery. What does a psychologist have to do with neurosurgery, anyway?
By Rohan Ramakrishna, MD
Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery
Last week the Cancer Moonshot Task Force released its official recommendations for achieving the lofty goal set out in President Obama’s State of the Union address in January: ending cancer as we know it. I am convinced we can do it, but we need...
By Jeffrey Greenfield, MD, PhD
Co-director, Children's Brain Tumor Project
As a pediatric neurosurgeon, I thought nothing could be more frustrating than a brain tumor that can’t be fixed surgically. As a neuroscience researcher, I thought nothing could make me more impatient than the deliberately slow pace we need to take...
By Mark M. Souweidane, MD
Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery
Co-director, Children's Brain Tumor Project
This morning I did something I’d done 30 previous times over the past four years: I inserted a tiny catheter into a child’s brain to infuse an obscure combination of an antibody and a radioactive substance. This time was different, though. This was...
By Philip E. Stieg, Ph.D., M.D.
Neurosurgeon-in-Chief
One of the biggest changes we’ve experienced in neurological surgery — and in medicine overall — in the past few decades is the use of high-tech imaging to see inside the body with great clarity and detail. MRIs, CT scans, ultrasounds, and PET scans...
By Maria Santos, M.D.
Global Neurosurgery Fellow
Bugando Medical Centre
Mwanza, Tanzania
I have spent the past seven months working as the Global Neurosurgery Fellow at Bugando Medical Centre in Tanzania, under the supervision of Dr. Roger Härtl in New York. The hospital is located in Mwanza, a large city on the shores of Lake Victoria...
By Michael G. Kaplitt, MD, PhD
Vice Chair, Department of Neurological Surgery
Director, Parkinson's and Movement Disorders Service
Essential tremor is the most common movement disorder – it’s even more prevalent than Parkinson’s disease — and although many cases are mild, others can become quite debilitating over time. The tremors, which are often most severe in the hands, can...
