Neurosurgery - Division of the Month
27 March 2025
1) Spine Surgery
Our spinal neurosurgery group continues to be one of busiest in the country, and an active contributor to innovative clinical spine research, as well as the body of literature published by the Canadian Spine Outcomes and Research Network (CSORN).
New directions include collaboration with basic science researchers at the 黑料不打烊 developing therapies for spinal cord injury. In particular, Dr. Richard Fox has been collaborating on the development of intraspinal microstimulation (ISMS), a novel technique stimulating locomotor circuits in the ventral horn of the lumbar spinal cord using penetrating microelectrodes. ISMS has demonstrated promising results in restoring standing and walking after spinal cord injury in small animals (rats and cats). However, the feasibility, safety, long-term stability and functionality of ISMS implants in large mammals and humans remains a question. Dr. Fox and colleagues are aiming to design, fabricate, and characterize a fully-implantable ISMS device with a strain relief-mechanism suitable for humans and test its functionality in a clinically relevant large animal model.
Selected recent publications in Spine include (divisional faculty highlight in bold):
Essa A, Malhotra AK, Shakil H, Badhiwala J, Nathens AB, Yuan EY, He Y, Jack AS, Mathieu F, Wilson JR, Witiw CD.
Evolution of Real-World Clinical Practice in Time to Surgery Following Thoracolumbar Spinal Cord Injury: An Observational Study of North American Trauma Centers from 2010 to 2020.
J Neurotrauma 2024 Nov 7. doi: 10.1089/neu.2024.012
Essa A, Shakil H, Malhotra AK, Badhiwala J, Yuan EY, He Y, Jack AS, Mathieu F, Nathens AB, Wilson JR, Witiw CD.
Time to Surgery Following Complete Cervical Spinal Cord Injury: Evolution of Clinical Practice Patterns Over a Decade from 2010 to 2020 Across North American Trauma Centers.
J Neurotrauma 2024 Nov 6. doi: 10.1089/neu.2024.0025.
Gabet JM, Anderson N, Groothuis JT, Zeldin ER, Norbury JW, Jack AS, Jacques L, Sneag DB, Poncelet A.
Neuralgic amyotrophy: An update in evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment approaches.
Muscle Nerve 2024 Oct 14. doi: 10.1002/mus.28274.
Shakil H, Dea N, Malhotra AK, Essa A, Jacobs WB, Cadotte DW, Paquet J, Weber MH, Phan P, Bailey CS, Christie SD, Attabib N, Manson N, Toor J, Nataraj A, Hall H, McIntosh G, Fisher CG, Rampersaud YR, Evaniew N, Wilson JR.
Who Gets Better After Surgery for Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy? A Responder Analysis from the Multicenter Canadian Spine Outcomes and Research Network. Spine J 2024 Oct 16:S1529-9430(24)01058-1. doi: 10.1016/j.spinee.2024.09.033.
MacLean MA, Charest-Morin R, Stratton A, Singh S, Kelly AM, Pickett GE, Glennie A, Bailey C, Weber MH, Attabib N, Cherry A, Crawford E, Paquet J, Dea N, Nataraj A, Abraham E, Eseonu KC, Johnson MG, Hall H, Thomas K, McIntosh G, Fisher CG, Rampersaud YR, Greene R, Christie SD.
Gender differences in spine surgery for degenerative lumbar disease: prospective cohort study.
J Neurosurg Spine 2024 Oct 18:1-9. doi: 10.3171/2024.7.SPINE231388.
2) Functional neurosurgery
The Functional Neurosurgery Research Laboratory, led by Principal Investigator Dr. Tejas Sankar along with co-investigator Dr. Cameron Elliott, uses neuroimaging, neurophysiology, and collaborative basic science methods to advance the goal of generating biomarkers for outcome prediction and surgical patient selection across diverse neurological conditions, including Parkinson’s Disease, chronic facial pain, and epilepsy. A major focus of recent work has focused on understanding the chronic facial pain condition Trigeminal Neuralgia, supported by a ~$1M CIHR grant.
Selected recent publications Functional Neurosurgery include:
Dasgupta D, Elliott CA, O'Keeffe AG, Rodionov R, Li K, Vakharia VN, Mirza FA, Tahir MZ, Tisdall MM, Miserocchi A, McEvoy AW, Ourselin S, Sparks RE, Duncan JS. Computer-assisted stereoelectroencephalography planning: center-specific priors enhance planning.
Front Neurol 2025 Feb 27;16:1514442. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1514442.
Lam JLW, Sankar T, Sekula RF, Senatus PB, Patil PG.
Trigeminal Neuralgia: Disease Characterization and Prediction of Response to Surgical Intervention.
Curr Pain Headache Rep 2025 Jan 28;29(1):37. doi: 10.1007/s11916-024-01316-5
Yen K, Torabi P, Miyasaki JM, Sankar T, Ba F.
Quality improvement in deep brain stimulation for movement disorders: pandemic impact on specialized elective surgery.
Can J Neurol Sci 2024, doi: 10.1017/cjn.2024.353.
Granzer-Corno L, Rana R, Dick BG, Sankar T.
Different scale, different pain? Discordant pain measurements after surgery for trigeminal neuralgia.
World Neurosurgery 2024, doi: 10.1016/j.wneu.2024.11.064.
Rheaume AR, Pietrosanu M, Ostertag C, Sankar T.
Repeat surgery for recurrent or refractory trigeminal neuralgia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
World Neurosurgery 2024, doi: 10.1016/j.wneu.2024.02.097.
3) Gamma Knife
The Gamma Knife stereotactic radiosurgery program has a very large clinical throughput, treating patients with both malignant and benign brain disease, and continues to grow and thrive with collaborations from multiple specialties. Led by Dr. Gregory Bowden, the program is a member of the International Radiosurgery Research Foundation (IRRF), which allows for large datasets to be created across multiple centers. In addition, two masters students are affiliated with the program currently.
Selected recent publications in Gamma Knife include:
Bin-Alamer O, Abou-Al-Shaar H, Singh R, Bowden G, Mathieu D, Perlow HK, Palmer JD, Elhamdani S, Shepard M, Liang Y, Nabeel AM, Reda WA, Tawadros SR, Abdel Karim K, El-Shehaby AMN, Emad Eldin R, Elazzazi AH, Warnick RE, Gozal YM, Daly M, McShane B, Addis-Jackson M, Karthikeyan G, Smith S, Picozzi P, Franzini A, Kaisman-Elbaz T, Yang HC, Hess J, Templeton K, Wei Z, Pikis S, Mantziaris G, Simonova G, Liscak R, Peker S, Samanci Y, Chiang V, Lee CC, Trifiletti DM, Niranjan A, Lunsford LD, Sheehan JP.J
Local control and patient survival after stereotactic radiosurgery for esophageal cancer brain metastases: an international multicenter analysis.
Neurosurgery 2024 Dec 6:1-9. doi: 10.3171/2024.7.JNS24920.
Hamel A, Tourigny JN, Niranjan A, Lunsford LD, Wei Z, Srinivasan PN, Liscak R, May J, Martínez Moreno N, Martínez Álvarez R, Lee CC, Yang HC, Tripathi M, Kumar N, Mashiach E, Kondziolka D, Briggs RG, Yu C, Zada G, Franzini A, Pecchioli G, Bowden GN, Dayawansa S, Sheehan J, Mathieu D.
Long-Term Outcomes of Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Pineocytomas: An International Multicenter Study.
Neurosurgery 2024 Nov 7. doi: 10.1227/neu.0000000000003261.
Dayawansa S, Dumot C, Mantziaris G, Xu Z, Pikis S, Peker S, Samanci Y, Ardor GD, Nabeel AM, Reda WA, Tawadros SR, Abdelkarim K, El-Shehaby AMN, Eldin RME, Elazzazi AH, Moreno NM, Álvarez RM, Liscak R, May J, Mathieu D, Tourigny JN, Tripathi M, Rajput A, Kumar N, Kaur R, Picozzi P, Franzini A, Speckter H, Hernandez W, Brito A, Warnick RE, Alzate J, Kondziolka D, Bowden GN, Patel S, Sheehan JP. Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for patients with brainstem cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs): an international, multicentric study.
Sci Rep. 2024 Oct 29;14(1):25933. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-77140-z.
4) Vascular Neurosurgery
Vascular neurosurgical research in the Division today continues to be focused largely on generating evidence for various surgical and endovascular treatments through clinical trials, led Drs. Tim Darsaut, Cian O’Kelly, and Michael Chow. Dr. J. Max Findlay is a senior figure in international vascular neurosurgery and continues to be invited to contribute to the literature on cerebral vasospasm.
Selected recent publications in Vascular Neurosurgery include:
Darsaut TE, Lecaros N, Comby PO, Jabre R, Iancu D, Roy D, Weill A, Bojanowski MW, Chaalala C, El Hage G, Bilocq A, Truffer E, Findlay JM, Rempel JL, Chow MMC, O'Kelly CJ, Ashforth RA, Stechishin O, Gaberel T, Barbier C, Arikan F, Arrese I, Sarabia R, Altschul DJ, Chagnon M, Zehr J, Shankar JJS, Proust F, Gevry G, Raymond J.
A randomized trial comparing endovascular and surgical management of ruptured intracranial aneurysms excluded from previous trials
J Neurosurg 2025 Jan 17:1-9. doi: 10.3171/2024.8.JNS241276.
Terrett LA, McIntyre L, O'Kelly C, Ramsay T, Turgeon AF, English SW.
Blood Pressure Management in Early Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: A National Cross-Sectional Survey of Canadian Intensivists and Cerebrovascular Neurosurgeons
Neurocrit Care. 2024 Dec;41(3):893-902. doi: 10.1007/s12028-024-02011-4.
Comby PO, Finitsis S, Iancu D, Alexandratou M, Benomar A, Roy D, Weill A, Jabre R, Lecaros N, Alhazmi H, Darsaut TE, Raymond J.
Reliability and applicability of angiographic outcome scales in WEB device-treated aneurysms: a systematic review
Neuroradiology. 2024 Dec 20. doi: 10.1007/s00234-024-03526-5.
Boisseau W, Darsaut TE, Fahed R, Drake B, Lesiuk H, Rempel JL, O'Kelly CJ, Chow MMC, Iancu D, Roy D, Weill A, Klink R, Raymond J.
Flow diversion for the treatment of distal circulation aneurysms: A randomized comparison
AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2024 Dec 18:ajnr.A8620. doi: 10.3174/ajnr.A8620.
Raymond J, Darsaut TE.
Lies, damned lies, and statistical populations
Neurochirurgie. 2024 Nov 15;71(1):101610. doi: 10.1016/j.neuchi.2024.101610.
Raymond J, Darsaut TE.
Understanding the role of induction, intensions and extensions in pragmatic clinical research and practice
Neurochirurgie. 2024 Nov 7;71(1):101609. doi: 10.1016/j.neuchi.2024.101609.
Raymond J, Darsaut TE.
Understanding statistical populations and inferences
Neurochirurgie. 2024 Nov 7;71(1):101608. doi: 10.1016/j.neuchi.2024.101608.
Findlay JM
A Look Back on the History of Cerebral Revascularization for Acute Ischemic Stroke: A Neurosurgeon's Perspective
Can J Neurol Sci. 2024 Nov 5:1-4. doi: 10.1017/cjn.2024.292.
5) Pediatric Neurosurgery
Pediatric neurosurgical care has a long and storied tradition at the 黑料不打烊, and remains a very busy clinical service serving Northern 黑料不打烊. Under the team of Drs. Vivek Mehta, Jenny Souster, and Cameron Elliott, collaborative clinical research activities continue to be carried out in the areas of hydrocephalus and pediatric head injury.
Selected recent publications in Pediatric Neurosurgery include:
Chan V, Harmsen IE, Shumilak G, Elliott CA.
Risk Factors for 30-Day Postoperative Infection in Pediatric Ventricular Shunts for Hydrocephalus
World Neurosurg 2025 Mar;195:123676. doi: 10.1016/j.wneu.2025.123676.
Hamel C, Avard B, Chow R, Davies D, Dixon A, Eamer G, Garel J, Grimbly C, Jamieson L, Kovesi T, MacLean J, Mehta V, Metcalfe P, Michaud A, Miller E, O'Brien K, Otley A, Pohl D, Stein N, Abdeen N.
Canadian Association of Radiologists Pediatric Imaging Referral Guideline
Can Assoc Radiol J 2024 Dec 6:8465371241296820. doi: 10.1177/08465371241296820.