2023 Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report : simplebooklet.com

ContentLetter from the Chair ..............................................06 Department Growth ...............................................07NewlyAppointed Vice Chairs ..........................................07The Next Chair of Neurological Surgery ................................08Department News..................................................10New Hires .......................................................... 10Lectureships .......................................................11Campbell Lecture ...................................................09Frew Lecture .......................................................09Kalsbeck Lecture ....................................................09Mealey Lecture .....................................................09Clinical Faculty ................................................... 12Education .........................................................14Christopher Wilson 2023 Alumni , ..................................... 14Fellow Graduates .................................................... 15Fellows and Residents................................................ 16Clinical Care ...................................................... 18Multi-Disciplinary Care ............................................... 18Focused Ultrasound ................................................. 19Blow Dart Accident Brings Specialists Together.........................20AI and Machine Learning To Treat Spine Patients .......................22Research ..........................................................24Surgeon-Scientists Lead Neuro-Oncology Research.....................24ENRICH Trial ........................................................25ISCBIRG Research ...................................................26Rabbit Model For Brain Aneurysms ....................................28Basic and Surgeon Scientists .........................................29Philanthropy ......................................................30Joseph C. Maroon Professorship ......................................30Alumni.............................................................32Alumni List .........................................................32Jacob Archer Alumni Feature .........................................33Support the Department of Neurological Surgery ..................34

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Sincerely,Mitesh V. Shah, MDChair, Department of Neurological SurgeryPaul B. Nelson Chair of Neurological SurgeryCo-director, Neuroscience InstituteIU School of Medicine6IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '23Colleagues, alumni and friends, As our healthcare systems opened back to full capacity in 2023, we realized the pandemic economics would not resolve in a short time. While hospital margins improved toward year end, they are still at a historic low. Despite these uncertainties, The Indiana University School of Medicine experienced a record year in National Institutes of Health funding. The school is now ranked No. 13 among public universities in NIH grant funding, according to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research. Our department contributed to this growth by achieving a more than 25% increase in NIH funding, and our NIH research ranking improved by three positions thanks in large part from the work of our basic scientists, Wei Wu, PhD; Lingxiao Deng, PhD; and Xiang Gao, PhD. Their research focuses on spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries, built upon the legacy of their late mentor, Xiao-Ming Xu, PhD. We honored Dr. Xu’s life this year with a symposium of presentations from nationally renowned spinal cord and brain injury faculty. These researchers honored his impactful work conducted through our department and at the Stark Neurosciences Research Institute.Our research proposals grew by 50% to $7.2 million in 2023. Our surgeon-scientists Jignesh Tailor, MD, PhD and Angela Richardson, MD, PhD as well as our scientist Nuri Damayanti, PhD contributed to this growth with their work in the neuro-oncology program. They seek to understand the tenets of tumorigenesis and growth to create models to test novel drug therapies. The Center for Neuro-Oncology in the IU School of Medicine-IU Health Neuroscience Institute named a director, Na Tosha Gaston, MD, PhD, who will work with our surgeons to develop destination centers for brain metastasis and primary brain tumors. The Neuroscience Institute team also launched the Skull Base and Meningioma Destination Center this past year. In a very short time, it has demonstrated a great potential for growth with a 13% increase in surgical volume for complex surgeries requiring multidisciplinary teams of neurosurgeons, otologists, rhinologists and radiation and medical oncologists. Neuromodulation, Augmentation and Restorative therapies will revolutionize the A letter from the Chaircare of patients with epilepsy, movement disorders, addiction, intractable pain and depression. The department plans to be national leaders in this space. We launched the use of the high-intensity focused ultrasound this year for patients with Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor. IU Health will be one of a handful of centers in the country with the magnetoencephalogram to non-invasively help localize epileptic focus. We are committed to developing the program at IU using expertise in neurophysiology and data science in the department and in collaboration with the Purdue University Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering. The recruitment of two outstanding new surgeons, Matt Pease, MD and Kenny Moore, MD was a departmental highlight. Both are fellowship trained and come to us with outstanding pedigrees from the University of Pittsburgh and Semmes Murphy Institute, respectively. Dr. Pease brings expertise in data science, gamma knife, and neuro-oncology and will help lead the brain metastasis program and support our neurotrauma program. Dr. Moore will help support the largest comprehensive stroke center in the state.The ENRICH trial, a national industry sponsored randomized clinical trial on minimally invasive surgical versus best medical therapy, was completed last year. The IU School of Medicine provided one of the highest enrollments of patients. This trial showed the benets of surgery over medical therapy using this minimally invasive technique developed by a company based in Carmel, Indiana.Our spine program joined a national registry, the Medtronic Alliance program, that will help, among other things, track eectiveness of using AI to generate spinal implants to treat patients with spinal deformity. The use of robotics in spinal surgery continues to evolve and we are at the forefront of collecting national data that will help guide better, safer and more cost-eective outcomes.The education mission continues to be one of the strongest pillars of the department. We matched four medical students into neurosurgery last year and graduated three outstanding residents who completed enfolded fellowships in spine, endovascular and neuro-oncology. Our alumni continue to support the department, and we are grateful for their commitment to the Shapiro Campaign to create a professorship to memorialize Scott Shapiro, MD’s more than decades of serving as the residency program director. Joe Maroon, MD, an IU distinguished alumnus, generously donated $1 million to establish a Professorship in Neuroscience Innovation. This will serve as the catalyst to build and recruit talent to create a world class innovation core of a surgical skills lab, simulation/virtual reality lab and a center for drug and device development inside the neuroscience institute.Finally, Angela Duckworth in her book, “Grit,” quanties the power of passion and perseverance. The department and my career journey exemplify the value of passion and perseverance. This year ended with the honor of me being named the chair of a department I dedicated my career to. We have begun to operationalize some of the key tenets of our goal to lead Indiana and beyond in the care of patients with nervous system disorders. The department and the neuroscience institute has focused on creating multidisciplinary clinics, developing personalized medicine, providing access to novel therapies through participation in clinical trials and creating a model for innovative patient centered care.

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8IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '23The next chair of the Department of Neurological SurgeryThe Indiana University School of Medicine has named a nationally-recognized neurosurgeon and one of its longtime faculty leaders as the next chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery.Mitesh V. Shah, MD has been named the new chair, after serving as interim chair of the department since April 2022. He also serves as co-director of the IU School of Medicine-IU Health Neuroscience Institute.Shah joined the IU School of Medicine faculty in 1994 as the only fellowship-trained skull base surgeon — specializing in the technique that is widely applied for treating brain tumors. He was recruited to the school to grow the subspeciality of neurovascular and skull base surgery. In those eorts, he played a pivotal role in forming a strong collaboration between subspecialties — creating a multidisciplinary team that has transformed the program from a small group to a nationally-recognized powerhouse.“Throughout his tenure at the IU School of Medicine, Dr. Shah has been a transformative leader and educator who has played a pivotal role in growing the Department of Neurological Surgery’s strength across our three mission areas,” said Jay L. Hess, MD, PhD, MHSA, dean of the IU School of Medicine and Executive Vice President of University Clinical Aairs for IU. “As we look to build on the strength of our neuroscience programs across disciplines, Dr. Shah’s commitment to collaboration will be critical in driving that growth.”Over the course of his career, Shah has demonstrated a passion for education—serving as a mentor for medical students, residents, fellows, undergraduates and nursing students. Under his guidance as the department’s director of education, the IU School of Medicine students regularly are among the highest ranked in the country for placement into neurosurgery training programs. With an eye always on innovation, Shah developed a multimedia platform to teach the neurologic exam for medical students and residents.Shah has had extensive involvement in the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, serving on its executive committee, as well as the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. In 2021, he was named the 74th president of the Neurosurgical Society of America.“Collaborative, innovative and multidisciplinary approaches should be the hallmark of any great neurosurgical department. The School of Medicine is poised to truly move the needle in this very important area of research and clinical care,” said Shah. “I am honored by the opportunity to serve as chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery, and eager to continue leading this world-class group of researchers and physicians.”A 1983 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh with a bachelor’s in biochemistry, Shah received his MD in 1987 from Temple University School of Medicine. He completed an internship in general surgery and a residency in neurological surgery at the University of Minnesota Medical School. He later completed a fellowship in cranial base surgery at George Washington University School of Medicine. He joined the faculty at the IU School of Medicine in 1994 and is currently the Paul B. Nelson Professor of Neurological Surgery.

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10IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '23Department NewsThe Department of Neurological Surgery at IU School of Medicine welcomed two new faculty physicians in 2023 to expand their growth in both downtown Indianapolis and the surrounding suburbs. Kenneth A. Moore, MD, joined the department as an assistant professor in August 2023. Dr. Moore’s primary focus is the comprehensive management of neurovascular disorders using both open surgical and endovascular methods. He also practices general neurosurgery with a focus on cranial disorders and minimally invasive techniques. He will see patients at Goodman Hall and IU North. Dr. Moore completed a fellowship in cerebro-vascular and endovascular neurosurgery at the Semmes-Murphey Clinic in Memphis, Tennessee. He earned his medical degree at the IU School of Medicine in 2015 and completed his neurosurgery residency at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in 2022. During residency, he also completed a skull base and endoscopic neurosur-gery fellowship at North Bristol NHS Trust in Bris-tol, United Kingdom. His clinical interests include brain aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, dural arteriovenous stulas, carotid stenosis, brain and skull base tumors, microvascular compression syndromes, Chiari malformation, degenerative spinal disease, and neurotrauma. Procedures he conducts include surgical and endovascular treatment of brain or spinal vascular lesions, carotid endarterectomy or stenting, microvascular decompression, and minimally invasive surgery for brain tumors or degenerative spine conditions.Outside the hospital, Dr. Moore is an avid musician and tness enthusiast. He is married to Dr. Angela Kuo, an Internal Medicine and Pediatrics physician with IU Health. The couple met in medical school at IU, and they enjoy reading, cooking and traveling together.Matthew Pease, MD, joined the department as an assistant professor in November 2023. He is a neurosurgeon who specializes in care for patients with cancer and trauma. Dr. Pease graduated with high distinction in economics from Duke University where he developed models to better understand how the brain is structured to make economic decisions. After graduating, he completed medical school at the University of Southern California and trained in clinical neurosurgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. There, Dr. Pease developed an interest in better understanding how to predict outcomes for trauma patients, communicate expected outcomes to families, and better prevent complications during recovery. After residency, Dr. Pease completed a fellowship in neurosurgical oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the rst institution in the U.S. devoted solely to treating cancer. “For families, cancer is a scary diagnosis to hear. We are constantly developing new treatments, changing the face of cancer, and bringing hope.” Dr. Pease specializes in using functional mapping and minimally invasive tools to minimize the impact of surgery on the brain, allowing for faster recovery. As a fellowship-trained data scientist, he is pushing cancer care forward through developing new articial intelligence-based tools to help diagnose and treat cancer more eectively. Dr. Pease’s work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Neurology, Annals of Neurology, Radiology, Neuro-oncology, Epilepsia and Neurosurgery. Neurological Surgery hires two new surgeons.Kenneth A. Moore, MDAssistant Professor of Neurological SurgeryMatthew W. Pease, MD Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery

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10TH ANNUAL MEALEY LECTURESHIP – NOV. 15, 2023“Lessons Learned: 20 years of minimally invasive anterior skull base surgery”The Mealey Lectureship honors Dr. John Mealey, Jr., for his years of dedication and passion for research in neuro-oncology. Dr. Mealey received his Doctorate of Medicine from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed his internship at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He completed his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and his fellowship at Harvard Medical School. In 1960, Dr. Mealey joined the IU School of Medicine, Department of Surgery, Section of Neurosurgery, and became Professor of Surgery in 1969 and Professor Emeritus of Neurological Surgery in 1996.IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '2311IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '23John R. W. Kestle, MDProfessor, Department of Neurosurgery University of Utah“Benets and Challenges of Creating a Hydrocephalus Network”The Kalsbeck Lectureship honors John Edward Kalsbeck, MD, for his years of dedication to pediatric neurosurgery. Dr. Kalsbeck was a professor of neurological surgery at IU School of Medicine for 42 years. He was the rst neurosurgeon in Indiana dedicated to pediatrics. Dr. Kalsbeck entered neurosurgical residency in 1956 and was one of the rst three residents in the newly created training program at IU School of Medicine; he later established the rst pediatric neurosurgery fellowship training program in Indiana.Michael G. Fehlings, MD, PhDProfessor of Neurosurgery, Department of SurgeryUniversity of Toronto“Repair and Regeneration of the Injured Spinal Cord: Where Have We Been? Where Are We Now? Where Are We Going?”The Frew Lectureship honors Jack and Sabina Frew, who rst learned about IU Health Methodist Hospital by watching the Indianapolis 500 and hearing about the care IU Health provides professional racecar drivers. Not long afterward, Jack sought care from IU, traveling from Florida to Indianapolis to seek expert medical advice. At that time, Jack and Sabina met the late Dr. Julius Goodman, who treated them with the utmost respect while providing care which allowed Jack to return to better health. Based on this patient experience and outstanding care, Jack and Sabina chose to honor Dr. Goodman by establishing the Jack and Sabina Frew Lectureship.Vincent C. Traynelis, MDProfessor, Department of Neurosurgery RUSH Medical College“Geratric Odontoid Fractures” The Campbell Lectureship honors Dr. Robert L. Campbell, one of the giants in the neurosurgery specialty. He trained an entire generation of neurosurgeons, many of whom are still practicing in Indianapolis and around the country. Goodman Campbell Brain and Spine was partly named in his honor. Dr. Campbell started residency in neurological surgery at IU School of Medicine. He completed his residency in June 1957 and became a member of the neurosurgery faculty quickly rising to the leadership position of section head in 1964, which he remained until 1992.2ND ANNUAL KALSBECK LECTURESHIP – APRIL 12, 202320TH ANNUAL FREW LECTURESHIP – MAY 9, 202327TH ANNUAL CAMPBELL LECTURESHIP – NOV. 1, 2023Theodore H. Schwartz, MDDavid and Ursel Barnes Professor of Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery, Departments of Neurological Surgery, Otolaryngology and NeuroscienceLectureships

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IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '2314IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '23“PASSION FOR YOUR WORK IS A LITTLE BIT OF DISCOVERY, FOLLOWED BY A LOT OF DEVELOPMENT, AND THEN A LIFETIME OF DEEPENING.” Angela DuckworthChris Wilson, MD will never forget the medical trip he took to Kenya in 2022.As the neuro-oncology fellow in the Department of Neurological Surgery at Indiana University School of Medicine, Wilson spent 11 days with neurosurgery residents, faculty and sta members at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in Eldoret, Kenya. The trip was through AMPATH — a partnership between Moi University, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital and the AMPATH Consortium of North American universities, led by IU — The team provided neurological care, training and support to physicians and residents in Eldoret.“The stories of the plight that many in developing countries endure due to poor access to neurosurgical intervention was ground shaking for me,” Wilson said.The impact of that trip has led Wilson, who is now a neurosurgeon at Neurosurgery Specialists of Tulsa in Tulsa, Oklahoma and an assistant professor at Oklahoma State University College of Medicine, to work with multiple companies hoping to provide lifesaving drills that facilitate craniotomies and spine surgery. He’s also planning a medical trip to Zimbabwe with Tulsa-area nurses and physicians.In Tulsa, Wilson, who is practicing as a general neurosurgeon, is also performing a tremendous amount of skull base tumor surgery. He completed his fellowship in oncology and skull base surgery at IU.Before matching into the Department of Neurological Surgery at IU School of Medicine in 2016, Wilson earned his medical degree from the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. Originally interested in breast surgical oncology for a residency, Wilson, during his second year NEUROSURGERY ALUM CREDITS ‘BOLD’ AND ‘BRAVE’ APPROACH IN THE OPERATING ROOM TO HIS MENTORS AT IUof medical school, found a neuroanatomy class especially fascinating.“I loved that I could assess a patient's symptoms and do a physical exam and predict where in the neurological system the problem existed,” Wilson said. “It was like a puzzle. I scrubbed in with neurosurgeons at OU the day after that class and saw a frontal sinus cranialization procedure. After that, I was hooked.”The high volume of surgical cases at IU School of Medicine as a resident, Wilson said, gave him condence that he would graduate ready to practice neurosurgery independently with good outcomes. He also enjoyed the family friendly culture that IU Neurosurgery provides.“I learned about the value of resilience and a life-long dedication to learning how to practice neurosurgery. I was taught that being a neurosurgeon is a dedication to a life of service,” Wilson said. “During my fel-lowship, I learned to operate bravely. Neu-ro-oncology is often associated with high-risk operations. Aaron Cohen-Gadol, MD, Mitesh Shah, MD and Angela Richardson, MD, PhD, showed me how to take on these operations with boldness.”EducationChristopher Wilson, MDNeuro-oncology Fellow, 2023 alumni Neurosurgery Specialists, Tulsa, Oklahoma

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IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '2318IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '23ClinicalCareSkull base tumors can threaten vision, facial function and hearing, and outcomes are better at high-volume centers with advanced technologists and skilled surgeons. A team of specialists at The Indiana University School of Medicine, partnered with IU Health, have implemented a skull base destination center to best serve Indiana and the Midwest.At one of the largest academic healthcare systems in the Midwest, the team of specialists in the Departments of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Neurological Surgery and Internal Medicine not only treat patients with excellence but also lead research and clinical trials, bringing leading-edge skull base tumor care to the people of Indiana.Rick Nelson, MD, PhD, associate professor of otolaryngology—head and neck surgery, leads the skull base surgery program at IU, a clinician team that treats the most skull base tumors in the state of Indiana. In 2023, the program had 317 new visits for skull base conditions.“Our team is comprised of highly specialized, fellowship-trained providers from multiple disciplines, including skull base surgery, neurosurgery, radiation oncology, endocrinology and endovascular,” Nelson said. “We are prepared to treat any patient of any age from the small incidentally found lesion to the most complex tumors of the skull base.”The skull base surgery destination center is part of the Center for Neuro-Oncology in the IU School of Medicine-IU Health Neuroscience Institute. Treatment of skull base tumors may include surgery, radiation therapy, reconstructive surgery, or a combination of these approaches, and most tumors and conditions have the potential to impact quality of life. Conditions treated through the program include, but are not limited to, pituitary adenomas, CSF leaks, IU OFFERS PREMIER, MULTI-DISCIPLINARY CARE FOR SKULL BASE SURGERYmeningiomas, acoustic neuroma and paragangliomas. Providers at IU are passionate about getting patients back to their daily activities,” Nelson said.“Patients will get timely care where an individualized treatment plan will be formulated based on the unique characteristics of the condition or tumor,” Nelson said. “We collaborate with local physicians throughout the state to facilitate treatment.”The program is also nationally recognized for research in the diagnosis and treatment of spontaneous CSF leaks, acoustic neuromas and pituitary adenomas. Faculty physicians have discovered — and have published these importance ndings in peer-reviewed journals — how too much pressure inside the head contributes to skull thinning and brain uid leaks as well as how implementing new microsurgical techniques can preserve the facial nerve during acoustic neuroma surgery, Nelson said.Trainees can also study with nationally and internationally renowned faculty in three fellowship opportunities in the Departments of Neurological Surgery and Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery.

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IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '2319IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '23IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '23Patient has steady hand after tremor is treated through focused ultrasound thalamotomy procedure For more than a decade, Joel Downing watched his hand tremors get progressive-ly worse to the point he couldn't play in his billiards league because of the shaking. After his doctor referred him to specialists at IU Health, Downing agreed to undergo a cutting-edge, non-invasive operation called focused ultrasound thalamotomy.“The tremors have made it real hard for me to handle even drinking a pop or a wa-ter because my hand shakes real bad and I don’t have the strength to hold on to any-thing,” Downing said. “Sometimes I need both hands to drink.”Focused ultrasound is a treatment for pa-tients experiencing essential tremor who have not responded to medications. Down-ing tried four dierent medications, and he’s been unable to work or enjoy hobbies, like billiards, the use of his hands tends to amplify the tremors."Every nerve function except for sense of smell runs through the thalamus," said Thomas Witt, MD, associate professor of neurological surgery. "This procedure [uses ultrasonic waves] to make a cut, a le-sion to these specic cells, in the thalamus that leads to tremor relief."Patients are referred to a movement disor-der neurologist rst to see if focused ultra-sound is an appropriate treatment for their condition. If they are a good candidate for the procedure, they’ll next meet with a neurosurgeon to plan out the focused ul-trasound thalamotomy.The procedure is noninvasive, meaning no incisions, drilling or burr holes. It instead directs ultrasonic waves to a small part of the brain that is responsible for the trem-or. Patients will usually see immediate improvement after multiple rounds of the ultrasonic waves.“Surgeons get a lot of credit for this type of technology,” Witt said, “but it’s really the physicists and engineers who help with the MRI technology to be able to measure the temperature of the brain tissue in a patient in real time. It’s incredible.”Witt, who performed the focused ultra-sound thalamotomy on Downing, said sur-geons want the area of the brain to be very limited and precise to only specic cells. For Downing, they treated a section in the right side of the brain to help with the trem-or in his left hand., Witt said.Throughout the procedure, Witt said, the amount of energy from the ultrasonic waves increases the heat needed to form a lesion to eliminate brain tissue that’s causing the tremor. In between each step, Downing drew circles and signed his name on a piece of paper to document progress. His circles and signature improved as the thalamotomy proceeded.“Since my operation, I can do more with my left hand,” Downing said. “Now it’s more steady.”

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20IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '23A freak accident brought together specialists from Riley Children’s Health and IU Health Methodist Hospital to save the life of a little girl in August 2023.One wrong move, one bad decision, and 7-year-old Olivia might not have been doing cartwheels in the lower level of the Riley Outpatient Center a few weeks after the accident.Olivia, her two older brothers and parents Phillip and Jessica (who asked that their last name not be used) returned to Riley on Tuesday evening to meet with the doctors who saved her life after she was injured by a blow dart at a friend’s house in northwestern Indiana.The nearly 3-inch-long dart pushed through her nostril and embedded in a bone at the base of her skull. A tiny portion of the dart could be seen protruding from the girl’s nose, but Olivia’s mom, a nurse, knew better than to attempt to pull it out.That could have been disastrous, risking damage to nerves and arteries and potentially uncontrolled bleeding, doctors said.With any kind of penetrating object, Riley pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Laurie Ackerman said, never try to pull it out yourself. It must be done in a controlled environment.Instead, after Jessica arrived on the scene, she took her daughter straight to the emergency department at a nearby hospital in northwestern Indiana.Surgeons remove blow dart that entered girl’s nose, lodged in skullBy Maureen Gilmer, IU Health senior writerANSWERING THE CALLDr. Ackerman, the John E. Kalsbeck Professor of Pediatric Neurosurgery, was on call that Saturday night in early August at Riley when doctors at the other hospital requested a consult on Olivia’s care, providing X-rays of the dart lodged in Olivia’s skull.Viewing the scans while she talked with the emergency team there, Dr. Ackerman could see the dart was piercing a bone in front of the spinal cord at the bottom of the skull, something you don’t see very often, she said.“The hospital did a wonderful job of stabilizing her, getting pictures that we needed and giving us the opportunity to prepare on this end.” That preparation included a huddle with multiple providers here, as they looked at the images and discussed the best approach to treatment.“We have a very deep bench here,” Dr. Ackerman said of the Riley and IU Health teams. “We have people with specialty expertise to handle about anything that rolls in the door.”Olivia was transferred to Riley via LifeLine ambulance, arriving shortly after 11 p.m., her mom recalls.Dr. Ackerman and Dr. Matthew Partain, a pediatric otolaryngologist (ear, nose and throat), were there when she arrived, as were members of the operating room team and radiologists.Olivia was “incredibly calm,” Dr. Ackerman recalls. “She was one of the coolest customers I’ve met in the emergency department.”That’s not the Olivia her parents know and love. Jessica and Phillip said their daughter typically is unnerved by hospitals and medical care in general.“We knew something was up because she doesn’t act that way,” her dad said, admitting that he was a mess himself. “She’s not calm for medical stu.”Yet, she was aware of what had happened and open with the medical team about what she was feeling, Dr. Partain said.“When they arrived at Riley, we had everyone ready to triage and make sure she was stable enough to go through a couple more tests and get things ready for the operating room,” he said.DINNER MUST WAITDr. Mitesh Shah, chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery, was not on call that Saturday night and had plans to go out to dinner.When Dr. Ackerman contacted him and explained Olivia’s case, he quickly realized his evening was about to change.In 30 years as a neurosurgeon, this was something he’d never seen. In fact, he didn’t even know what a blow dart looked like. (Blowguns are legal in Indiana.)“When I got the call, I knew that based on the

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IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '2321IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '23WE HAVE A VERY DEEP BENCH HERE,” DR. ACKERMAN SAID OF THE RILEY AND IU HEALTH TEAMS. “WE HAVE PEOPLE WITH SPECIALTY EXPERTISE TO HANDLE ABOUT ANYTHING THAT ROLLS IN THE DOOR.”location of the dart, this was not something that a community hospital could handle,” Dr. Shah said, noting the tip of the dart was so close to the vertebral artery, she could die if it pierced the blood vessel.“Once we got over the shock and awe of what we saw on the images, we decided about the strategy. It not only was embedded in the bone … it had traversed the covering of the brain and was sitting in spinal uid. Fortunately, the brain stem wasn’t aected and the nerve it was adjacent to (which moves the tongue) wasn’t aected.”The plan was to engage ENT specialists to work through the nose to remove portions of bone, thereby loosening the dart.“We had to organize a team in the middle of the night that had expertise in managing the specialized equipment we needed,” Dr. Shah said.Dr. Partain explained that the team had a space of 2 centimeters (about ¾ of an inch) across to work with. “If there’s anything hiding around corners, we have angled instruments to see where we’re operating. It’s important for us to visualize everything completely and know we’re able to get our instruments safely back where we needed to operate.”“RARE, CRITICAL SCENARIO”Dr. Satyan Sreenath, an ENT rhinologist and skull-based surgeon at Methodist and Riley, was part of that team called in to operate on Olivia.He recalls going into a Zen-like state on his drive to Riley in the early hours of Sunday morning.“There is no standard operating procedure for something like this,” Dr. Sreenath said. “It was completely unique … a rare, critical scenario.”The team of surgeons put their heads together to gure out, “how do we utilize our known techniques to be able to handle this unknown territory.”The team prepared to do brain surgery through the nose, inserting a tiny camera, drill and other instruments that would enable them to remove a small portion of bone to loosen the dart, while at the same time keeping it from shifting and lacerating the vertebral artery.“In the old days, we used to take o half the skull and retract the brain to be able to get to that area in the center of the head,” Dr. Sreenath said. “Endoscopic skull-based surgery laid the foundation for a lot of our modern collaborative neurosurgical and ENT surgical approaches.”“GREAT RELIEF”As surgery got underway, he said, “Dr. Partain and I are very cognizant of – how do we minimize damage to other structures in the sinus cavity to be able to loosen this projectile? We’re trying to save this little girl’s life, but in the back of your head these are things that are also important.”Olivia’s parents were anxiously awaiting word during the operation, and part of that time Jessica remembers talking to her daughter, even though she was in another room.“Right before Dr. Ackerman came out to tell us that they got the dart, I started talking to (Olivia) and reminded her that she was strong and she had a lot of life left and she needed to come back and see her brothers and do this and that,” Jessica said.Her daughter would later tell her that she saw her great grandmother, who died a few months ago, while she was sedated.“She was holding my hand, but you guys couldn’t see her because I was asleep,” Olivia told her parents.Surgery lasted several hours through the night, but Olivia did well and was moved to the pediatric intensive care unit to recover at about 6 in the morning.BACK TO GYMNASTICS AND SCHOOLFor a situation that could have gone “six dierent ways,” Dr. Sreenath said, seeing how well Olivia is doing today is “the greatest relief.”Olivia, who spent much of Tuesday’s reunion at Riley chasing her brothers around the room and doing cartwheels on command, seems none the worse for her experience. She is back in school, participating in gymnastics and playing with her friends.Her parents, though, are still recovering from the trauma.“God forbid anybody has to go through something like that,” Jessica said. “These doctors are absolutely phenomenal. They listened, they communicated, they knew their job. Honestly, I’m kind of in love with all of them because they’re great,” she added.“We couldn’t do anything but place all of our trust that they were going to save her, and they did.”

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22IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '23Articial intelligence is changing spine surgery, and neurosurgeons in the Department of Neurological Surgery at The IU School of Medicine are at the forefront of this new technology. Surgeons in the department utilize Food and Drug Administration-cleared UNiD Adaptive Spine Intelligence from Medtronic, an international medical device company, for some of the most complex spinal procedures. The technology uses articial intelligence — backed by data science — to change the standard of care of spinal patients.The UNiD rods are designed for the specic needs of a patient and prefabricated to accurately match an AI-driven pre-operative surgical plan. The system incorporates an AI algorithm to predict reciprocal changes in alignment based on the planned surgical changes. The model uses patient results from thousands of individual patients who have had surgery.“This advanced technology has helped surgeons at The IU School of Medicine achieve the desired alignment for the spine, which can provide better outcomes to patients and their families,” said David AI-driven, personalized technology advancing spinal surgery Stockwell, MD, assistant professor of clinical neurological surgery.Stockwell, Jamie Bradbury, MD, assistant professor of clinical neurological surgery; Gordon Mao, MD, assistant professor of clinical neurological surgery; and James Miller, MD, assistant professor of clinical neurological surgery are the spinal surgeons at IU who perform surgery using UNiD rods. They typically perform this type of surgery multiple times each week.The surgeon sends preoperative imaging and tentative surgical plan to the planning service for analysis and predictive modeling. The engineer analyzes the patient's spinal parameters and models a few options so the surgeon can determine the best plan based on scientic literature.This gives patients and their surgeons options. Each simulation uses AI to generate predictive models allowing the surgeon to visualize the postoperative compensatory mechanisms most likely to occur following surgery.UNiD Rods are used to treat scoliosis, trau-ma, tumors and complex degenerative conditions in adults and adolescent idio-pathic scoliosis, according to Medtronic.“AI can incorporate predictive analytics to provide surgeons guidance for rod planning,” Stockwell said. “This should help decrease the need for future surgery and help the patient achieve larger improvements in quality of life.”Prior to this new technology, surgeons would have to manually bend rods in typical spine procedures. Bending rods with surgical instruments leads to fatigue, Stockwell said. The UNiD rods that are prefabricated should have better structural integrity.Following the UNiD rod procedure, data scientists use machine learning to identify correlations and tendencies within the aggregated set of de-identied data, according to Medtronic.In conjunction with the procedures, the department is participating in the Medtronic Alliance clinical registry to track patient outcomes for patients receiving the implant.

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IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '2324IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '23RESEARCHA core group of scientists and surgeon-scientists in the Department of Neurological Surgery at The Indiana University School of Medicine are studying the role of cancer in the brain and testing novel drug therapies in the hopes of translating treatments to patients.The department submitted more than $7.2 million in research proposals in 2023, and much of that is attributed to the work of neuro-oncology experts Angela Richardson, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurological surgery, Jignesh Tailor, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurological surgery and Nur Damayanti, PhD, assistant research professor of neurological surgery. These researchers are investigating the causes of tumorigenesis, specically the eect of brain tumors on young children.RICHARDSON LABRichardson focuses on developing novel therapeutic strategies and preclinical models to enable improved translation from the laboratory to the clinic. Her group aims to improve preclinical modeling of brain tumors to mimic the environment more accurately within patients.Oxygen levels within the body and within tumors are signicantly lower than oxygen levels within ambient air. One set of studies in the lab is aimed at understanding the eect of these dierent oxygen levels on brain tumorigenesis and chemoresistance. The lab is also exploring the use of viral vectors to implant a “suicide gene” selectively into cancer cells for medulloblastoma, the most common solid brain tumor in children. This gene is expressed and can convert a prodrug into an active chemotherapy drug within the tumor cells. Through these ndings, Richardson and her research team have shown that the viral vector is able to spread through and kill tumor cells. The project investigates its in the most lethal form of medulloblastoma, leptomeningeal disease, which spreads in the central nervous system.Outside of the lab, Richardson is the principal investigator of a clinical trial — comparing the ecacy and safety of intraoperative radiation therapy using GammaTilesTM (GT) versus SRT 3-4 weeks following metastatic tumor resection which is the current standard of care. For patients who receive the device, a neurosurgeon — Richardson at IU — removes the tumor and implants small collagen tiles that contain radiation seeds to slowly deliver radiation into the cavity over the next 90 days.TAILOR LABTailor’s research is devoted to understanding the pathogenesis of pediatric brain tumors. The laboratory uses human neural stem cells as in vitro models of progenitors in the developing brain/spinal cord and investigates the molecular and cellular eects of cancer predisposition genes on neural stem cell self-renewal and dierentiation. He focuses his work on two primary areas. The rst is to understand medulloblastoma, the most common malignant brain tumor of childhood. He has pioneered a unique stem cell model of medulloblastoma to study brain tumorigenesis from human iPSCs that he has developed and to identify novel therapeutic targets. A second line of study is to help understand the pathogenesis of spinal ependymoma in NF2 and to develop useful drug therapy to stop progression of this disease.Tailor and his team believe that understanding the early steps of brain and spinal cord tumorigenesis will lead to novel therapeutic strategies to prevent malignant tumors in patients with brain cancer predisposition syndrome.DAMAYANTI LABDamayanti develops her research by integrat-ing multi-omics approaches and patient-de-rived models to obtain precision medicine for rare glioma patients, specically, but not limited to, Pleomorphic Xanthoastrocytoma (PXA) and its anaplastic form (APXA). Anaplastic gliomas are heterogeneous in their histology, genetic landscape, prognosis and response to treatment. Damayanti’s work involves model establishment, molecular characterization, biomarker identication, tumor classication and targeted therapy validation.Damayanti's rst bona de anaplastic glioma model was developed from a leptomeningeal spread of APXA from a patient treated at Riley Children’s Health at IU Health. Integrated omics validated the delity between the patient’s tumor and its models in histology as well as its molecular landscape at the genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and post-translational levels. This work was published in Nature Scientic Reports. Damayanti identied actionable therapeutic vulnerabilities, such as pathways as potential targets, which will be validated preclinically in the PDX models.Surgeon-scientists, scientists lead neuro-oncology research

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IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '2325IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '23IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '23Intracerebral hemorrhage stroke outcomes improve with early minimally invasive surgery evaluated in clinical trialPatients with an intracerebral hemorrhage have better medical outcomes when surgeons perform an early minimally invasive removal of a hematoma compared to those receiving the standard of care, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.Indiana University School of Medicine faculty clinicians Mitesh Shah, MD, Bradley Bohnstedt, MD, Regg Singh, MD and Jason Allen, MD, PhD are co-authors on a paper that assessed the ndings of the ENRICH trial, a randomized clinical trial aimed at evaluating the eectiveness, safety and economics of the intervention of a minimally invasive neurosurgery technique.The study found that patients with an intracerebral hemorrhage — a type of stroke caused by bleeding inside the brain — who had minimally invasive surgical evacuation of a brain blood clot and guideline-based medical management within 24 hours had better survival rates and functional outcomes at 180 days compared to patients who only received medical management. Neurosurgeons used BrainPath and Myrid devices developed by the NICO Corporation, based out of Carmel, Indiana, to perform the surgery. Surgeons create a path to the site of bleeding by gently moving aside brain tissue. Once the BrainPath device was placed, an automated suction and resection tool — the Myrid device — was used to remove the hematoma in the brain.“We can oer early clot removal in patients with an intracerebral hemorrhage and tell our patients that they have better outcomes and survival. The families of the patients can ultimately see patients leave the hospital sooner,” said Shah, chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery. According to the World Stroke Organization, there are more than 3.4 million new intracerebral hemorrhages each year — and over 28% of all strokes are intracerebral hemorrhages. In the United States, more than half of patients die within 30 days of a hemorrhage. The 300 patients in the ENRICH trial, evaluated at 37 centers across the United States, either had a lobar (208 patients) or anterior basal ganglia hemorrhage (92 patients) with a hematoma volume of 30-80 mL and were randomized between the two surgical groups — surgery/medical management and medical management. IU School of Medicine and its health partner IU Health was one of the sites in the trial, where 14 patients received care.Nearly three-fourths of the surgical group in the clinical trial saw the volume of their blood clot decrease to 15 mL or less after surgery was performed within 24 hours. At 30 days post-hemorrhage, 90.7% of surgery patients survived, while 82% of medical management patients survived.“By evacuating the clot with this early intervention, we can increase survivability and reduce the number of days spent in critical care and reduce health care costs,” Bohnstedt said.

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26IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '23IU Neurosurgery researchers studying potential therapeutics for spinal cord injuriesSpinal cord injuries aect hundreds of thousands of people in the United States — with thousands more diagnosed each year — and there are no eective treatments.Researchers in the Department of Neurological Surgery at The Indiana University School of Medicine are dedicated to studying the molecular mechanisms underlying spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury. They work to develop novel repair strategies to promote neural reorganization and functional recovery in experimental models of these injuries. The long-term goal of these studies is to translate promising treatments from animal models to humans.Three basic scientists in the department were awarded new federal grants in 2023. Wei Wu, PhD, assistant professor of neurological surgery received a 5-year, $1.7 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Lingxiao Deng, PhD, assistant professor of neurological surgery, and Xiang Gao, PhD, assistant research professor of neurological surgery, received a 3-year, $792,499 grant from the Department of Defense.REPROGRAMMING CELLS TO PROMOTE REGENERATIONWu’s grant, titled “Converting the glial scar to neurons repairs the injured neural circuits for functional recovery following

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IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '2327IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '23spinal cord injury,” will support his research investigating how reprogramming NG2 glial cells found along the spinal cord can promote regeneration of nerve bers critical to motor function after spinal cord injury.“We unexpectedly uncovered a novel bio-logical function of NG2 glia reprogramming in vivo, alongside with the generation of new neurons,” Wu said. “This reprogram-ming process may contribute to the recon-struction of residential neural networks es-sential for behavioral recovery.”The research team previously repro-grammed NG2 glia into new neurons in a spinal cord injury animal model. They did this using elevated levels of SOX2 — a tran-scription factor found inside the cell that’s essential for neurogenesis. Wu and his fellow researchers focused their investigation on the corticospinal tract — an essential pathway for movement — and serotonergic neurons, which play an important role in modulating the activity of spinal networks in motor functions. The axons for both pathways transmit commands from the brain to the spinal cord to control movement. Despite the pivotal roles of these two pathways in the central nervous system, they don’t regenerate on their own after injury, Wu said. Reprogramming NG2 in the spinal cord of the animal model not only promoted axonal regeneration across and beyond the lesion of the injury, but it also triggered the generation of new neurons, including those associated with the corticospinal tract and serotonin. “The in vivo experiments enable us to directly address the ecacy of the in vivo cell fate reprogramming as a strategy to produce new neurons in the adult mouse spinal cord,” Wu said. “By observing the eects within the spinal cord tissue, we can better understand how reprogramming promotes the neural circuit repair.”Wu said future studies are needed to better understand the reprogramming-induced regeneration process and develop glia reprograming as a therapeutic strategy. “Both the regenerated axons and new neurons are likely playing crucial roles in promoting the neural repair after spinal cord injury,” Wu said. “By translating our preclinical ndings into clinically viable therapies, we hope to provide eective treatments that enable individuals with spinal cord injuries to regain lost function and enhance their independence and mobility.”STUDYING AN FDA-APPROVED DRUG’S EFFECT ON NEUROPROTECTIONDeng and Gao’s grant, titled “Synergisti-cally enhanced neuroprotection via Dex-medetomidine induced early hypothermia and ERK activation after spinal cord injury,” supports their research into hypother-mia. They hypothesize that the use of an FDA-approved drug, dexmedetomidine, ex-erts a strong neuroprotection after spinal cord injury by inducing early hypothermia.Following a spinal cord injury, a person also experiences a secondary injury, which amplies the primary damage of cell injury and promotes cystic degeneration and glial scar formation.“There is a critical time window for pharmacological treatments to target the progression of the pathophysiological processes associated with secondary injury that can potentially improve the chronic condition,” Deng said. “Systemic hypothermia is a proven neuroprotective strategy to limit secondary injury in animal models of acute spinal cord injury.”Clinical trials have been initiated to study the use of dexmedetomidine, a widely used clinic sedative drug, however the ecacy of the clinical application of hyperthermia to treat spinal cord injury remains signicantly limited by delayed initiation of hypothermia in clinical practice. Deng is using the drug to rapidly induce up to 16 hours of moderate general hypothermia in ordinary ambient temperature without using any auxiliary cooling equipment.“This early onset and long-lasting eect of hypothermia greatly improved both locomotor and bladder voiding functions,” Deng said.The study focuses on verifying if the drug is superior to the conventional hypother-mia in neuroprotection after spinal cord injury; uncovering the neuroprotective mechanism; and optimizing the therapeu-tic protocol of drug-induced hypothermia.Improvement in bladder function is a top priority among spinal cord injury patients, as it greatly eects their quality of life. This will be the rst study of its kind to evaluate hypothermia on bladder function improvement in spinal cord injuries.

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28IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '23Neurosurgeon leading development of rabbit model for brain aneurysmsAs technology continues to advance, physicians are moving to less invasive approaches for treatment in medicine. A surgeon in the Department of Neurological Surgery at The Indiana University School of Medicine is leading a study that’s investigating new ways to treat patients with brain aneurysms.Bradley Bohnstedt, MD, associate professor of neurological surgery, is working with a team of scientists to develop an animal rabbit model to test devices used to surgically treat intracranial aneurysms. They created a customizable memory shape polymer implant as a treatment option. He’s collaborating with Chung Hao Lee, PhD, from the University of California Riverside and Hugh Lee, PhD, at Purdue University.“This is a novel approach for an implant that has further potential to be biodegradable in future permutations,” Bohnstedt said. “This would allow us to treat the aneurysm, resulting in the vessel wall to heal and the implant to be reabsorbed with nothing left behind.”Intracranial aneurysms are rare, resulting in fewer than 200,000 cases in the United States each year. While unruptured aneurysms usually cause little to no symptoms, a rupture of an aneurysm requires immediate emergency medical care. Subarachnoid hemorrhage, a type of stroke that is caused by the rupture of an aneurysm, can lead to death or long-term disability. Current treatments include surgical clipping and endovascular therapies, such as coiling of aneurysms. Clipping uses a platinum clip to block blood ow into the site of the anyeurism, which is highly invasive due to the need of craniotomy. Coiling is much less invasive than clipping; however, coiling has a high recurrence rate of up to 40% by 10 years, Bohnstedt said.When new devices to block the ow of a blood vessel, or embolization, are created, it’s necessary to have models for testing the devices before they make it to humans, Bohnstedt said. The animal model will test the memory shape polymer implant in New Zealand White Rabbits, a small animal that has vasculature that mimics that of those in the human brain.“This model has been extensively studied for the placement of aneurysm treatment devices as their brachiocephalic and common carotid arteries mimic the size of human intracranial vessels,” Bohnstedt said. “This allows us to not only study the placement of new devices but also how living tissue reacts to the devices in the animal model.”The team found that the memory shape polymer can occlude the aneurysm well when surgically implanted, Bohnstedt said. They have found several ways to manufacture dierent temperature transition points to allow for the implant to take the correct shape for treatment of aneurysms.`“THIS WOULD ALLOW US TO TREAT THE ANEURYSM, RESULTING IN THE VESSEL WALL TO HEAL AND THE IMPLANT TO BE REABSORBED WITH NOTHING LEFT BEHIND.”

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IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '2331IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '23IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '23Indiana University School of Medicine alum and renowned neurosurgeon Joseph Maroon, MD, has provided a $1 million gift to support a leader in research dedicated to neuroscience innovation.The contribution creates the Joseph C. Maroon, MD, Professorship in Neuroscience Innovation within the school’s Department of Neurological Surgery. Through this generous support, IU will recruit a leader to help revolutionize how we prevent, treat and rehabilitate brain-related disabilities that aect up to 5.3 million Americans."As a medical student and resident in neurosurgery at Indiana University, I learned never to be satised with the status quo, to always seek constant improvement in the art and science of medicine — and in my life,” Maroon said. “The goal of the Professorship in Innovation is to stimulate in perpetuity curiosity, inquisitiveness, creativity, and to provide the means through technology to prevent or alleviate patient pain and suering — without, at the same time, hardening the human heart by which we live. There is no better place I could imagine this being done than at the Indiana University School of Medicine Department of Neurosurgery and under the leadership of Dr. Mitesh Shah.”The ideal scientist will be deeply versed in emerging elds like machine learning, articial intelligence and bioinformatics. They will apply that knowledge to analyze large data sets, uncover new biomarkers and drug targets, and use those ndings to tailor therapy better. Additionally, the chairholder will have experience designing and running clinical trials. IU School of Medicine also oers critical resources to support this bold work. It is home to the nationally respected Center for Neuroimaging, the nation’s largest biobank for neurodegenerative diseases and cores of expertise at the $1 MILLION GIFT TO SUPPORT PROFESSORSHIP FOCUSED ON NEUROSCIENCE INNOVATIONIndiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute. IU is also one of 18 sites for the Track-TBI consortium and its partnership with IU Health oers access to a network of 16 hospitals across Indiana. The Department of Neurological Surgery aims to establish a Neuroscience Innovation Center, which will bring experts in these cutting-edge disciplines together with researchers skilled at developing new drug therapies and medical devices.“No one I know is more loyal about his beloved alma mater, Indiana University, or more passionate about being innovative in the neuroscience space than Joseph Maroon,” Shah said. “The establishment of the Joseph Maroon Professorship in Neuroscience Innovation will be the catalyst for developing a world-class Neuroscience Core for Innovation inside the Neuroscience Institute.”This research interlocks with the spirit that has shaped Maroon’s career. Over four decades, he has focused on developing minimally invasive surgical procedures for the brain and spine, preventing and treating traumatic injuries to the central nervous system and nding innovative approaches for brain tumors. He is the author of over 330 scientic papers, 60 book chapters and six books. Additionally, Maroon has delivered more than 200 presentations at national and international conferences.He is also the co-developer of ImPACT, the rst computerized system to assess concussion severity and the timing for an athlete’s return to the eld. Today, the tool is part of standard concussion protocols across professional sports and is used by more than 12,000 colleges and high schools across the United States. Twenty-three million tests have been administered to date.Born in Wheeling, West Virginia, Maroon earned a football scholarship to Indiana University in Bloomington, where he garnered Scholastic All-American Honors for the Hoosiers. Afterward, he earned a medical degree and pursued neurosurgical training from the IU School of Medicine. He received further training at Georgetown University and Oxford University. In 2022, Maroon received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the IU School of Medicine in recognition of his outstanding professional achievements. In 1972, Maroon established his practice at the University of Pittsburgh, where he remains a clinical professor and the Heindl Scholar in Neuroscience. He is also the vice chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Maroon is a long-serving neurosurgical consultant for professional and college athletes, including more than 40 years as the team neurosurgeon for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The NFL Physicians Society has awarded Maroon the Arthur C. Rettig Award for Academic Excellence, an honor bestowed to a team physician who advances the health and safety of the league’s players. Despite a packed professional schedule, Maroon remains a devoted triathlete who competed in over 100 races, including eight Ironman distance events.IU Foundation: Andrea Spahn-Mcgraw at anspahn@iu.eduor 317-278-2124

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32IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '23Alumni List2023Vincent J. AlentadoJonathan WeyhenmeyerChristopher Wilson2022Jacob ArcherAndrew KoivuniemiStephen Mendenhall2021Wei HuNicolas Villelli2020Thomas GianarisBrandon LaneGina Monaco2018Shaheryar F. AnsariTimothy Kovanda2017Kashif ShaikhIan White2016Andrea G. SchererCharles G. Kulwin2015John R. EdwardsNeal B. PatelTodd D. Vogel2014Bradley N. BohnstedtDavid Lewis2013Daniel L. KimJason M. Voorhies2012Zachary H. DoddJessica Wilden2011Gregory M. HelbigTodd A. Eads2010Jamie L. BradburyShannon P. McCanna2009Daniel H. Fulkerson2008Philip Yoder SmuckerThomas J. Altstadt2007Jordan JudeJames C. Miller2006Robert Blake Sloan2005Richard B. RodgersScott Hoyle Purvines2004Patrick J. ConnollyKevin M. Jackson2003Francesca D. Tekula2002Jill W. DonaldsonTodd B. Abel2001Rajesh K. BindalSubrata Ghosh2000Carl Gorman Bevering IIIJames K. Kaufman1999David P. FritzKen SatoWilliam E. Snyder1998Richard V. Chua1997Christopher E. WolaRobin M. Bowman1995James D. CallahanKimball N. Pratt1994Thomas B. ScullyThomas C. Witt1993Steven Goodwin1992Timothy K. PuttySteven Sanders1991Constance Kayser1990Carl J. SartoriusTariq Javed1989Joel C. Boaz,1988John CummingsJoseph L. Voelker1987Christopher L. MarquartScott A. Shapiro1986Luis Rodriquez1985Mark C. GlazierRobert Yount1984David Hall1982Jack DeckardRalph C. Loomis1981Thomas LuerssenMichael Turner1979Alonzo DeSousa1978Thomas Keucher1977Peter HallRobert Schultz1975Larry Schulhof1974Michael BurtBertil Loftman1973Daniel CooperRobert M. Worth1972Henry FeuerRichard Gilmor1971Joseph C. Maroon1970James Franco1968C. Courtney Whitlock1967John E. Joyner1966Carl KaoAndrievs Dzentis1965Sam Assam1959Eldon Hann1957Robert L. Campbell

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IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '2333IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '23During his neurological surgery residency at the Indiana University School of Medicine, Jacob Archer, MD, MBA, shifted his surgical interest from cranial surgery to spine.“I enjoyed both the biomechanics of the eld as well as the profound positive inuence it could have on people’s lives,” said Archer, who is now fellowship-trained in spine surgery and a neurosurgeon in Oklahoma.Archer completed his neurosurgery residency at the IU School of Medicine in 2022. Over the course of his program, which began in 2015 Archer said he was privileged to work with more than 25 dierent surgeons across multiple specialties at the IU School of Medicine.“Each had a dierent perspective, technique and philosophy for patient care,” Archer Neurosurgery alumnus cherishes the bonds he made with residents and faculty while training at IU School of Medicinesaid. “The ability to learn through so many dierent surgeons was invaluable.During his seventh year at IU, Archer was an enfolded spine fellow, one of the six post-residency fellowships after the completion of the chief year of residency oered in the Department of Neurological Surgery. Archer currently works at Oklahoma Spine Hospital in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where he specializes in spine with a focus in deformity and revision spinal surgery. An Oklahoma City native, Archer said he initially became interested in neuroscience and physiology of the nervous system while as an undergraduate at Texas Christian University. His father is a urologist and seeing him operate made Archer interested in procedural specialties.Though Archer returned to his roots in Oklahoma to practice post grad, he said he made lifelong friends with his fellow residents in the neurosurgery program at IU and most enjoyed the culture and sense of camaraderie among the residents and faculty in the department.During the Thanksgiving holiday of his fourth year in the residency program, Archer and his wife were expecting twins and away from family in Oklahoma. Not able to travel, the couple was invited to the home of Mitesh Shah, MD for Thanksgiving dinner. They enjoyed the meal with the Shah family as well as Nicholas Barbaro, MD, the department chair at the time, and his wife.“Dr. Shah and Dr. Barbaro were both great mentors at the hospital,” Archer said, “but I more cherished the friendships outside of work.”

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34IU School of Medicine Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report '23Support the Work of the Department of Neurological SurgeryEach year, thousands of people entrust the IU Department of Neurological Surgery a to provide them with excellent medical care. Many people turn to us because of our long history and reputation for attracting the nest surgical trainees and surgeons in the country. One of the reasons we have been able to build such a strong program-and to establish new standards of surgical care is because of philanthropic contributions from people like you. Gifts from our alumni, patients and friends help us to train our sta in the latest surgical techniques, to make advances in surgery through research and to achieve the best possible outcomes for patients. When you make a gift to the IU Department of Neurological Surgery, you enable our medical team to provide the most advanced care and make a dierence for every patient and family member we see. The new IU Health Hospital and IU School of Medicine Medical Education and Research Building in downtown Indianapolis will combine adult services into one location with inpatient and observation beds, a full-service outpatient center, on-site faculty oces and a state-of-the-art medical education facility. We are creating a new model of care for our community.This will enhance ongoing collaboration with the Indiana University School of Medicine and support the mission of clinical care, research and education.Construction on the new Academic Medical Center in Indianapolis and the Indiana University School of Medicine Medical Education & Research BuildingThere are many ways to support the Department of Neurological Surgery, including annual giving, creating endowed funds and gifts of assets. If you would like to discuss how you can be part of this critical work, please contact any or all the representatives.IU Foundation: Andrea Spahn-McGraw at anspahn@iu.eduor 317-278-2124IU Health Foundation: Heather Perdue at hperdue@iuhealth.orgor 317-962-2207Riley Children’s Foundation: Liz Elkas at riley@rileykids.orgor 317-634-4474

2023 Department of Neurological Surgery Annual Report

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