Additional Research Interests

Additionally, individual investigators within the Department continue to carry out groundbreaking research in a multitude of clinical, translational, and outcomes-related areas including but not limited to:

  • Brachial plexus and peripheral nerve surgical reconstruction strategies and outcome assessments
  • Interdisciplinary collaboration on brachial plexus and peripheral nerve research with Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Neurology, Plastic Surgery, Anesthesiology, Obstetrics, and Movement Science
  • Role of iron toxicity in causing brain injury post intracerebral and subarachnoid hemorrhage
  • Subarachnoid hemorrhage risk factors and clinical outcomes
  • Acute brain injury and brain-tissue oxygen guided management of patients with severe Traumatic Brain Injury, as well as a variety of noninvasive tools for the assessment of intracranial physiology in acute brain injury
  • Volume outcome relationship for hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke
  • Surgical treatment of and functional mapping for resection of brain metastases, as well as effects of radiation therapy on metastases and the surrounding brain
  • Spine metastases, including the growth of metastatic tumor in the spine, different aspects of the bone microenvironment that may play a role in spine metastases, as well as current treatment paradigms and codification of patients who benefit from different treatment modalities
  • Spine surgery clinical outcomes through spine registry data analysis
  • Spinal deformity and interbody fusion techniques (lateral interbody fusion) through prospective multi-center studies
  • Retrospective analysis on spinal topics including degenerative conditions, trauma, oncology, deformity, minimally invasive techniques, and novel spinal technologies
  • Collaboration with Biomedical Engineering to develop innovative treatments, such as:
    • Histotripsy (ultrasound-based technique) for intracerebral hemorrhage, brain tumors, and hydrocephalus
    • Development of a thrombectomy tool
    • Development of an automated drill for burr hole and intracranial pressure monitoring
    • Development of techniques for brain cooling
    • Resident procedural learning: using different feedback systems to examine how residents best learn surgery