The Neurosurgery and Spine program at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center provides comprehensive clinical care in all subspecialties of adult neurosurgery.

We provide emergent and urgent inpatient care to patients in the ER and in house, and we offer timely consultations for all elective conditions in General Neurosurgery, Endoscopic, Minimally invasive and Complex Spine Care, Brain Tumor Care, Functional Neurosurgery for epilepsy, pain and movement disorders as well as treatment for Peripheral Nerve Conditions. We jointly manage vascular neurosurgery patients and other neurological disorders such as stroke and head/spine trauma.

Our multidisciplinary spine center treats all acute and chronic spine conditions and employs specialists from Neurosurgery, Physiatry and the Pain Service for non-surgical management as well as neurosurgeons and orthopedic spine specialists for all surgical interventions.

Our Neurosurgical Oncology Program for brain and spine tumors (incl. Radiosurgery) is set up as an integrated tumor program with the Dana Farber Cancer Institute on site as well as BWH.

St. Elizabeth’s is equipped with state-of-the-art advanced imaging technology and Medtronic image-guidance platforms such as O-arm and Stealth S8 as well as Mazor Robot for minimally invasive and open brain and spine surgery techniques. This provides safe and successful surgical treatment of all neurosurgical conditions.

Our comprehensive in-house neurosurgical service line and our neurocritical care specialists are providing 24/7 board-certified coverage for exceptional and personal care pre- and post-op.

We are a teaching hospital for Boston University and Tufts and academically active.

Our Team

Ekkehard M. Kasper, MD, DPhil

Chief Neurological Surgery; Neurocritical Care

Jeffrey Arle, MD, PhD

Neurological Surgery

Sharon Bassi, MD

Rehabilitation Medicine and Pain Management; Medical Director Spine Care

Paul Glazer, MD

Orthopedic Surgery

Harsha Gopal, MD

Ear, Nose, and Throat; Pituitary Program

Zhiheng Henry He, MD

Chief of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Nutrition; Pituitary Program

Serdar Kaya, MD

Neurological Surgery

Zachary Tataryn, MD

Neurological Surgery 

Irene Piryatinsky, PhD

Neurocognitive Assessments

Alice Comerford, NP

Physiatry

John Dejesus, PA-C

Neurological Surgery

Nicholas Spitz, NP

Neurological Surgery

Lindsay Stanley, PA-C

Neurological Surgery

Jasmine Thammalangsy, PA-C

Neurological Surgery

Noriko Tonomura, PA-C, PhD

Neurological Surgery, Orthopedics, Spine Surgery

Patient Information

Our team has deep expertise to treat all adult neurosurgical conditions, including:

  • Degenerative spine conditions (e.g., slipped disc, spinal stenosis) of cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine regions.
  • Spinal deformity or instability (e.g., spondylolisthesis or scoliosis)
  • Traumatic Spine Conditions (e.g., vertebral compression or fractures)
  • Spine Infections
  • Spinal Cord Stimulators and Pain Pumps
  • Hydrocephalus
  • Brain Tumors, benign (e.g., meningiomas)
  • Brain Tumors, malignant (e.g., metastasis)
  • Complex skull base tumors
  • Cranial and spinal and peripheral nerve Schwannomas
  • Pituitary Tumors (e.g., adenomas, craniopharyngiomas)
  • Vascular conditions (e.g., stroke, subdural and epidural hematomas, ICH)
  • Movement disorders (including Parkinson, Tremors and others)
  • All epilepsy forms
  • Concussion and post traumatic brain injury
  • Chiari malformation
  • All types of cerebrovascular injuries and conditions
  • Head Pain Syndromes (e.g., Trigeminal neuralgia, Pharyngeal Neuralgia)
  • Spine Pain Syndromes (e.g., failed back syndrome, intractable pain, CRPS)

We assess all nerve conditions and perform peripheral nerve repair (e.g., Carpal tunnel syndrome and ulnar nerve entrapment syndromes)

We assess and treat Aneurysms, Arterio-venous malformations, and dural AV-fistulas.

We offer comprehensive neurosurgical treatments with modern technology including:

  • Minimally invasive techniques for the spine
  • Discectomy (to address lower back hernias affecting the spinal cord)
  • Disc replacement procedures.
  • Decompressive spinal surgery (e.g., laminectomy to treat spinal stenosis)
  • Complex spinal fusions and instrumentation
  • Robotic Spine Surgeries
  • All types of tumor related spine surgery