Upstate Department of Neurosurgery

The Department of Neurosurgery has been serving the region for more than 60 years. We are dedicated to the Upstate Medical University mission to improve the health of the communities we serve through education, biomedical research and patient care.

Our clinical practice — the Upstate Brain & Spine Center — offers the largest neurosurgical team in Central New York.  Our faculty and residents provide services to patients at Upstate University Hospital, which has an entire hospital floor dedicated to our patients with neurological disorders. In addition to providing advanced care and technologies, our multispecialty group supports patients at these Upstate facilities: the region’s only adult and pediatric Level-1 trauma center, a dedicated Cancer Center, the Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital, neonatal care units, and the region’s first Comprehensive Stroke Center.

As part of a medical university, our department’s mission of education for students and residents goes back to 1958 when the department was started by Dr. Robert King. In 2020, our prior Chair Dr. Lawrence Chin was appointed Dean of Upstate’s College of Medicine in recognition of his work and leadership.

We are proud of the fact that our faculty members have trained more than one hundred neurosurgeons through our residency program, as well as influenced many medical students pursuing neurosurgery. Our residents are educated in clinical decision making, technical aspects of neurosurgery, safety, quality, interpersonal and communication skills. Residents initiate and participate in both clinical and laboratory research.

To seek novel solutions through research has always been a focus of our department. In addition to providing excellent patient care, the Department of Neurosurgery engages in basic, translational and clinical research aimed at finding new treatments and improved strategies for disorders of the brain and spine.

Satish Krishnamurthy, MD, MCh, FAANS
Professor & Interim Department Chair