About Us

The Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh was founded more than 75 years ago with a strong commitment to patient care, education and research. Today, our department is the largest neurosurgical academic provider in the United States performing more than 11,000 procedures annually.

Neurosurgeons at UPMC Presbyterian have remained focused on patient care. We know that each individual patient has a unique problem that requires carefully developed treatment options -- sometimes surgical, sometimes not. Our facilities include the most technologically-advanced equipment -- modern surgical microscopes, advanced image-guided brain and spine navigational tools, state-of-the-art monitoring techniques -- improving patient outcomes by reducing operative complications.

Our patients spend less time in the hospital than almost any neurosurgical center in the world. In some cases, surgery that previously required seven-day in-hospital stays can now be done on an outpatient basis. We are the only center in the world with three Gamma Knife radiosurgery devices, each capable of performing totally noninvasive brain surgery.

Our physicians are leaders in their field, pioneering advancements in brain, spine, neck and peripheral nerve care. Treatment is provided through our centers of excellence, each focusing on a specific disease and treatment technique.

Our surgeons and scientists perform unique, federally funded research into methods for improving clinical outcomes; they continually develop new tools and techniques to improve the status of patients with potentially life-threatening illnesses. We provide the most advanced training to future neurosurgeons from the United States and abroad.

A recent study published in the Journal of Neurosurgery  showed that our department ranked first in academic output in top-tier specialty journals among all departments of neurosurgery across the United States and Canada. Another Journal of Neurosurgery article showed that our department ranked as the most productive residency program in the nation in terms of graduates remaining and contributing in academic neurosurgery. Still another article, published in informaHealthcare, showed that our stereotactic research effort was the most productive in the world.

Seventy-five years at the forefront of neurosurgical care have demonstrated that we are a proven international leader in patient care, research and education.