A one-year non-ACGME accredited clinical fellowship in Pediatric Neurosurgery begins July 1 of each year. The primary goal is to educate and train neurosurgeons who are planning to pursue academic careers in pediatric neurosurgery.

Our fellowship is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pediatric Neurosurgery Fellowships and recognized by the American Boards of Pediatric Neurosurgery. We participate in the Fellowship Matching Service administered by the San Francisco Matching Program. The fellowship training is based at St. Louis Children’s Hospital on the Washington University School of Medicine campus.

Why Washington University School of Medicine

Our clinical service is one of the largest, most comprehensive pediatric neurosurgery services in North America. We perform approximately 900 operative cases per year. In addition to treating hydrocephalus, spinal dysraphism and other common neurosurgical disorders in children, we have active comprehensive programs for spastic cerebral palsy, epilepsy surgery, neuro-oncology, brachial plexus palsy, craniofacial surgery, complex spinal surgery and Gamma Knife radiosurgery. Our dorsal rhizotomy program for cerebral palsy is the largest in the world. Other clinical programs also offer active multidisciplinary services.

The neurosurgery operating rooms are equipped with advanced technology, including two Stealth frameless stereotactic systems with optical and pinless RF capability; Zeiss Pentero operating microscopes; and a variety of neuro-endoscopic equipment. A new IMRIS® intraoperative MRI system at our affiliated Barnes-Jewish Hospital went live in 2008. Two operating rooms and one clinic are active simultaneously on most days. We have an outstanding dedicated neurosurgery nursing team who scrub on all elective cases in daytime and on major cases after regular hours. The comprehensive breadth and width of operative exposure enables the pediatric neurosurgery fellow to focus on additional sub-specialization in one or more areas if desired.

At St. Louis Children’s Hospital, we admit patients up to 21 years of age to a designated neurology/neurosurgery unit, and the fellow is responsible for neurosurgical care in the pediatric intensive care and neonatal intensive care units. The Department of Neurosurgery has excellent support from pediatric neurologists, neuroradiologists, intensive care specialists, neuroanesthetists, neonatologists, physical therapists, social workers and staff members from other services.

The fellow supervises two neurosurgery residents from the Washington University residency program as well as physician assistants and a nurse practitioner. The fellow and residents are responsible for the care of all patients on our service. The fellow makes rounds daily with the residents, participates in outpatient clinics, and works on operative cases. The fellow shares at-home call responsibilities with residents, generally by backing up the residents who are taking first-call.

The fellow participates in neurosurgery conferences at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and is expected to conduct clinical research that will be published before the end of the fellowship. To facilitate research, the fellow has a week each month away from clinical responsibilities to work on research and publications.

We provide meeting expenses for one national meeting, and pay expenses for additional meetings during the fellowship period for the presentation of a paper that emanates from our department.


Prior Fellow Graduates

Ryan Jafrani (Orlando, FL)
Afshin Salehi (Omaha, NE)
Richard A.A Day (Missoula, MT)
Shenandoah Robinson (Cleveland, OH)
Jeffrey Ojemann (Seattle, WA)
Tord Alden (Chicago, IL)
Stuart S. Kaplan (Las Vegas, NV)
Donncha O’Brien (Dublin, Ireland)
Jeffrey Leonard (St. Louis, MO)
Prithvi Narayan (Princeton, NJ)
Francesco Mangano (Cincinnati, OH)
Caglar Berk (Portland, OR)
David Limbrick (Richmond, VA)
Alex Powers (Winston-Salem, NC)
Jim Johnston (Birmingham, AL)
Amy Lee (Seattle, WA)
Nathan Ranalli (Jacksonville, FL)
Timothy Vogel (Cincinnati, OH)
Manish Shah (Houston, TX)
Brian Dlouhy (Iowa City, IA)
Jennifer M. Strahle (St. Louis, MO)
Brandon Miller (Lexington, KY)
Sean McEvoy (St. Louis, MO)
Jarod Roland (St. Louis, MO)
Esther Dupepe (New Orleans, LA)


Regular Conferences for Fellowship Training

Pediatric Neurosurgery Grand Rounds – 7:00 a. m., Monday mornings
Epilepsy Management Conference – 2:30 p.m., Monday afternoons
Neurosurgery Case Conference – 5:00 p.m., Monday afternoons
Department of Neurosurgery Grand Rounds – 7 a.m., Wednesday mornings
Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Tumor Board – 3:30 p.m., Thursday afternoons
Pediatric Neuroradiology Conference – 7 a.m., Thursday mornings
Pediatric Neurosurgery Case Review – 7 a.m., Friday mornings


Contact

A personal visit to our department and an interview are required. Interested applicants should apply via San Francisco Matching Program using our program #3442 and by sending a cover letter, curriculum vitae, three letters of recommendation and a headshot photo to Warren Smith at w.smith@wustl.edu.