WEATHER ALERT for January 25 & 26:
Important Information regarding Thomas Jefferson University for Sunday 1/25 and Monday 1/26 due to expected storm.
Read More [1/23/26 4 p.m.]
Functional Neurosurgery Fellowship
Leadership
Name:
Chengyuan Wu, MD, MSBmE
Position:
Director, Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery Fellowship
Email:
Chengyuan.Wu@jefferson.edu
Apply & Program Information
Name:
Michelle Hoffman
Position:
Education Program Coordinator
909 Walnut Street, 3rd Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Contact Number(s):
Thomas Jefferson University is proud to offer a one-year SNS/CAST accredited fellowship in functional neurosurgery to one candidate per year. This fellowship will provide training in a comprehensive approach to the treatment of patients with a variety of diseases, including epilepsy, movement disorders, chronic pain, and spasticity.
The faculty consists of Chengyuan Wu, MD, MSBmE, Ashwini Sharan, MD, Caio Matias MD, PhD, and Kevin J Hines, MD. Dr. Wu is a prominent figure in the functional neurosurgery community. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the American Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery.
Application Information
To apply to the Functional Neurosurgery Fellowship Program, please send CV to Michelle Hoffman.
Epilepsy
The Jefferson Comprehensive Epilepsy Center is an extremely busy center offering medical and surgical epilepsy treatment options. The Center is led by Michael Sperling, MD. Jefferson offers all available surgical epilepsy treatments, including resections, corpus callosotomy, thermal ablation (using both Visualase® and Neuroblate®), vagal nerve stimulation and responsive neurostimulation. We were also the first hospital in the United States to have a clinical Neuromate® sEEG robot installed. We also are partnered with Nemours Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, where we perform surgical epilepsy procedures including hemphispherotomies.
The fellow will attend the weekly epilepsy conference, which is a discussion between our epileptologists, neurosurgeons and neuropsychologists. Each surgical candidate is discussed at this conference, allowing the fellow to gain experience in surgical planning. They will also serve as either the primary surgeon or the assistant surgeon on epilepsy cases.
Movement Disorders
The Comprehensive Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorder Center at Thomas Jefferson University is recognized as a Parkinson’s Foundation Center of Excellence. We offer deep brain stimulation and ablative procedures to patients suffering from Parkinson’s Disease, Essential Tremor, and Dystonia. Our team has helped to popularize asleep image-guided image-verified DBS implantation, with the assistance of a stereotactic robot. We also offer MR-guided focused ultrasound treatment for those suffering from essential tremor.
Chronic Pain
In collaboration with interventional pain management and spine physicians, we select, trial, and implant a variety of spinal cord, occipital nerve, dorsal root ganglion, and multifidus stimulators. Working with Physiatrists and Neurologist, we also implant intrathecal pain pumps for the management of refractory spasticity. The division also performs ablative procedures including DREZ lesioning.
Other Information
- Opportunity for research: Our faculty are active researchers, routinely performing research on epilepsy, chronic pain and functional neurosurgery procedures. Dr. Wu, who has a secondary appointment in radiology, takes a particular interest in neuro-imaging and has recently started an advanced image processing lab. Dr. Matias is involved with research using spinal cord stimulation to help patients with spinal cord injury stand or walk again. And Dr. Hines has a particular interest in epilepsy research
- Call responsibilities: The functional fellow does not take call.
- In-patient duties: Both of our NICUs (totaling 40 beds) are staffed by neuro- intensivists and nurse practitioners. Patients on a neuroscience floor are followed by neurosurgical residents, specialized neuro-hospitalists and nurse practitioners, allowing the fellows to focus primarily on operative responsibilities and perioperative management.
- Clinic duties: Fellows will be in clinic twice per week, giving them additional experience in the evaluation of these disorders and formulating effective treatment plans. The fellow also has the option to follow the epilepsy neurologists and movement disorder neurologists in their clinic, giving them more experience in the medical management of epilepsy and Parkinson's patients.