Dr. Ibrahim Hussain is an accomplished neurosurgeon with advanced fellowship training in endoscopic, minimally invasive, and complex reconstructive spine surgery. He treats patients with the full spectrum of spinal disorders, including those with disc herniations, spinal stenosis, fractures, spinal cord injury, infections, spinal cord tumors/cysts, metastatic spine tumors, congenital anomalies, syrinxes, cerebrospinal fluid leaks, and scoliosis. A significant portion of his practice is devoted to revision surgeries in those who have recurrent symptoms after prior spine surgery, and those with peripheral nerve problems including tumors and compressive neuropathies.
Having trained with pioneers of neurosurgery at some of the top institutions in the world, Dr. Hussain both uses, and is involved in the development of, state-of-the-art intraoperative technologies that aim to make surgeries safer and less invasive, including three-dimensional computer-assisted navigation, endoscopy, robotics, and augmented reality. He has particular experience in performing same-day and “awake” spine surgeries using Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocols when appropriate for patients, which aim to get patients home faster, with less pain, with significantly reduced opioid use, and without the negative effects of general anesthesia.
In addition to his expertise for a subset of elite athletic patients with sports-related spinal injuries, Dr. Hussain is nationally recognized for his surgical treatment and research of traumatic brain injury. To this end, in 2022 he was officially appointed as the independent neurologic consultant for the NFL’s New York Giants.
Dr. Hussain strives to provide compassionate and comprehensive care to his patients and works with them and their families to provide the optimal solution to their medical problems, both inside and outside the operating room. Leveraging the internationally recognized faculty at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian, he works within a multi-specialist team that includes pain management doctors, neurologists, rehab doctors, physical therapists, oncologists, endocrinologists, and nutritionists to provide a safe, timely, and focused treatment plan custom designed for each patient.
Dr. Hussain is also committed to advancing the field of neurosurgery and spine surgery through other avenues. He is actively engaged in biomedical research (more below), and the surgical education and training of Weill Cornell Medical College students, residents, and international fellows. He works with the Weill Cornell Medicine Tanzania Neurosurgery Project (founded by Roger Härtl) to advance patient care and research in low- and middle-income nations in sub-Saharan Africa. He has published more than 30 book chapters on novel surgical techniques and disorders in neurosurgical textbooks used by trainees and surgeons around the world. Additionally, Dr. Hussain has been recruited as a surgical consultant for a number of regenerative medicine and biotechnology companies, in order to provide insight and expertise for the innovation of next-generation molecular treatments and medical device engineering in neurosurgery and spinal surgery.
TRAINING
Dr. Hussain received his BA from Rutgers University and his MD from Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School, where he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society as one of the top medical students in his graduating class. He was awarded the Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, where he spent a year performing landmark studies on the genome sequencing of pediatric brain tumors in patients with neurofibromatosis. He completed his residency in neurological surgery at the highly competitive combined program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. During his chief resident year, he was awarded the NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medicine Distinguished Housestaff Award, awarded to those with both outstanding technical skills and compassionate bedside manner. This was followed by a minimally invasive and complex spine fellowship at the University of Miami and Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida, which is among the busiest spine centers and Level 1 trauma centers in North America. There he specifically gained further expertise in the management of traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries.
RESEARCH
Dr. Hussain is prolific researcher with more than 160 peer-reviewed manuscript and abstract publications. He has been an invited speaker, moderator, and panelist at more than 40 national and international conferences to present his findings and insight, and he has won multiple awards from the American Association of Neurologic Surgeons (AANS) and Congress of Neurologic Surgeons Section on Disorders of the Spine and Peripheral Nerves. In 2022, he was named as one of four AO Spine North America Young Investigator Grant Award recipients, given to the most promising surgeons engaged in groundbreaking spine research. In 2024 he was named Leonard and Fleur Harlan Clinical Scholar, a three-year appointment that supports an outstanding junior faculty member in performing research projects in the field of neurosurgery.
Dr. Hussain collaborates with Dr. Roger Härtl and Dr. Larry Bonassar (in the biomedical engineering at Cornell University in Ithaca) on acellular and stem-cell based therapies for disc regeneration and repair with cervical and lumbar disc disease, which have resulted in several high-impact publications, grants, and awards. He also studies clinical outcomes from minimally invasive surgical techniques and technologies, including the identification of patient-centric and radiographic factors associated with surgical success and failures. These are performed through multi-center study groups to develop algorithms defining optimal patient selection. Finally, Dr. Hussain is also active in spinal oncology research, particularly in patients with metastatic spine disease, to develop comprehensive oncologic surgical/radiation treatment plans and scoring systems aiding in surgical decision making.
