The Department of Neurosurgery at Rhode Island Hospital, in affiliation with The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, offers a one-year, advanced, subspecialty experience in Neurosurgical Oncology. The fellow will receive instruction in surgical anatomy of brain, spine and peripheral nerve oncological procedures, including the management of complex neuro-oncological patients including primary and metastatic tumors, as well as the care of pain in the advanced cancer patient. Neurosurgeons accepted into the program are appointed as junior faculty with the full spectrum of surgical and clinical privileges in the neurosurgery department.

The program fellow will manage his or her own surgical cases with appropriate feedback and support from more senior faculty in the department. They will develop increased proficiency in surgical exposure for craniotomy (including awake craniotomy and neurophysiology) and open and endoscopic skull base surgery, anterior and posterior cervical, thoracic, and lumbar oncologic surgery, as well as other peripheral nerve and brachial plexus oncologic surgeries. The fellow will gain experience in stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for the brain and body using Varian Trilogy linear accelerator, CyberKnife linear accelerator, and the Gamma Knife unit. The fellow will gain exposure in the surgical treatment of advanced cancer pain using augmentive and ablative procedures including pain pumps, rhizotomies, and cordotomies. The fellow will become proficient in the use of intraoperative endoscopy, ultrasound, frameless stereotaxy and neurophysiologic methods for neuro-oncological surgery and will gain familiarity with commonly employed spinal instrumentation and fusion techniques.

Please direct inquiries to Krystyna Maxwell at Krystyna.Maxwell@lifespan.org

Previous Neurosurgical Oncology Fellows:
Mayur Jayarao, MD
Robert Weil, MD
Richard Dowd, MD