""

about | Maps & Directions | contact | admissions | faculty | alumni & development | library | Tech Support Center | dean's office | Policies & Procedures

Drs. Devanand Dominque and Bizhan Micaily fit a patient with frame prior to gamma knife surgery. Illustration of gamma knife surgery. Click to enlarge. Dr. Christopher Loftus discussing treatment options with a patient.

Department of Neurosurgery

Residency Program

 

The mission of the Temple Neurosurgery Residency Program is to train a select group of academic neurosurgeons who will contribute to the advancement of our specialty with their surgical skills, leadership qualities and scholarly contributions.

The Neurosurgical Service at Temple University Hospital was developed by Temple Fay, MD in 1930. Dr. Fay was a co-founder and former president of the Harvey Cushing Society (now the American Association of Neurological Surgeons).

 

The Temple Neurosurgical Residency was one of the original twenty programs that were in existence when the American Board of Neurological Surgery was founded in 1940. Michael Scott, MD, a resident under Dr. Fay, became Chairperson of the Department of Neurosurgery in 1943 and remained in that position until 1971. Dr. Scott was responsible for the training of many neurosurgeons, five of whom have become professors of neurosurgery and chairpersons of their departments.

 

Dr. Michael Scott was greatly respected and loved by the many neurosurgeons that he trained and in 1995 an annual oration was established in his name with his son, R. Michael Scott, MD, Chief of Neurosurgery at Boston Children's Hospital, as the first orator. Furthermore, Mrs. Catherine Scott continued to serve Temple University Hospital on its Auxiliary until very recently.

 

The late Fred Murtagh, MD, served as Chairperson after Dr. Scott until 1976, when William Buchheit, MD took over the reins. Dr. Buchheit served with distinction as Chairperson until 1994 and was succeeded in 1995 by Raj Narayan, MD as the fifth chair in the program's 70-year history.  In 2004, Christopher M. Loftus, MD, FACS, a world renowned neurosurgeon, accepted the position as Chairperson and is leading the department with distinction into the new millennium.

 

Although the Temple Neurosurgery Program has a long and distinguished record in various aspects of neurosurgery, perhaps its most notable historic claim to fame is the pioneering work in stereotactic neurosurgery, which was performed at Temple University Hospital by Drs. Ernst Spiegel and Henry Wycis. The first stereotactic frame that was used in humans was developed at Temple by Drs. Spiegel and Wycis is now displayed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.