Neurological surgery at the National Institutes of Health

The Surgical Neurology Branch (SNB) in the intramural program of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health has been a unique setting for academic neurosurgery for nearly 60 years. Every patient evaluated and treated in the SNB is enrolled in a clinical research protocol, which underscores a singular focus on advancing neurosurgical research and patient care. Since the inception of the SNB, this research effort has been driven by dedicated clinician-investigators and basic scientists including Maitland Baldwin, Igor Klatzo, John M. Van Buren, Ayub K. Ommaya, Richard J. Youle, and Edward H. Oldfield. These and other SNB investigators have studied and advanced treatment of a number of neuropathologic processes, including delineation of differences between cytotoxic and vasogenic edema, head injury, Cushing disease, the effects of vascular endothelial growth factor in nervous system tissues, tumor suppressor syndromes, the pathophysiology of syringomyelia, mechanisms underlying cerebral vasospasm after subarachnoid hemorrhage, spinal arteriovenous malformations, mechanisms of cell death, and drug delivery. Currently, SNB efforts are focused on central nervous system drug delivery, the natural history of familial tumor syndromes, functional neurosurgery, epilepsy, vasospasm, and development of chemotherapeutics for malignant glioma. Throughout its history, the SNB has also been dedicated to training neurosurgeon clinician-investigators; 23 previous fellows/staff have become chairs of their respective neurosurgical departments. Recently, the commitment to training future neurosurgeon clinician-investigators has been further defined with the development of a residency-training program in neurological surgery approved in 2010.