With the exception of scoliosis surgery and treatment of intradural conditions it has been our goal to give fellows in orthopedic surgery and neurosurgery the widest exposure and experience in surgery of the other discipline. From our point of view this means that our trainees will develop the expertise to utilize the latest techniques to instrument the lumbar and thoracic spine. Orthopedic fellows will gain experience in instrumentation of the cervical spine which has been, for the most part, the province of the neurosurgery service. In practical terms this means that the neurosurgery fellow will spend six months of the fellowship year in three month blocks of time on the orthopedic spine service. The orthopedic fellow will rotate in similar fashion onto the neurosurgery spine service.
Didactic training is an important part of the fellowship.
There is now a weekly combined neurosurgery and orthopedic spine conference on Friday mornings where cases are presented for preoperative decision making and the results of operation are critically examined. Fridays are also devoted to a series of didactic conferences including neuropathology, neurology-neurosurgery grand rounds and the case presentation conference where the fellow will be expected to present operations of interest performed the preceding week. The fellowship is further strengthened by a strong program in the clinical and basic neurosciences. The neuroradiology department is internationally known and diagnostic facilities represent the state of the art. The interventional neuroradiology division under the direction of Dr. Alejandro Berenstein has been a pioneer in endovascular procedures and is an important asset in the management of vascular spinal tumors.