|
 October
24, 2003 -- The University of Virginia Department
of Neurosurgery is strengthening its already strong spinal surgery
practice.
"Our
team is very experienced in the management of spinal conditions,
and we can handle all types of cases," says John A. Jane, M.D.,
Ph.D., chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery.
The
department roster includes many neurosurgeons with spine expertise
and several who are employing new techniques. Some of those techniques
helping to make surgery easier on patients are minimally invasive
spine surgery, bone fusions that eliminate the need to harvest bone
grafts and implants inserted without large skin incisions.
Neurosurgeons
who perform a large volume of spine surgeries include Jane, Mark
E. Shaffrey, M.D., Greg Helm, M.D., Ph.D., and Jeffrey Elias, M.D.
The
latest addition to the neurosurgery faculty is Christopher Shaffrey,
M.D. (brother of Mark Shaffrey), who joins U.Va. from the University
of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, where he helped to
develop new techniques and expertise in complex surgeries of the
spine. Christopher Shaffrey’s patient population is about 80
percent adult and 20 percent pediatric.
Board-certified
in both neurosurgery and orthopaedic surgery, he performs a wide
variety of complex procedures, including surgical treatments for
pediatric and adult scoliosis, craniocervical abnormalities (pediatric),
complex congenital abnormalities (pediatric), tumors, venous malformations
and spondylolisthesis (slippage of spine, a common condition). He
has a special interest in spinal instrumentation for deformity,
but can work on all conditions of the spine, Jane says.
"Dr.
Chris Shaffrey has a unique combination of skills, being board-certified
in neurosurgery as well as orthopaedics," Jane notes. "The
word unique is overused, but nobody else has that kind of training."
Christopher
Shaffrey and Elias, who is relatively new to U.Va., both are seeing
new patients.
To refer a patient or make an inquiry about spine neurosurgery at
U.Va., please call 434-924-2203 or 800-362-2203.
|
