Neurosurgery Residency

Our goal is to give our residents a high-quality educational experience. Neurosurgery residents will train at both Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Temple and Baylor Scott & White McLane Children's Medical Center in Temple.

While we will do our best to maintain this schedule, adjustments are sometimes required and should be expected. Our program is designed to create well-trained neurosurgeons using the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education surgery training program.

We collaborate in a highly interdisciplinary environment that crosses departmental lines to treat skull base tumors and anomalies, craniofacial disorders and cancer affecting the nervous system, stroke, movement disorders, epilepsy, pituitary diseases, neurofibromatosis and complex spine problems.

There are several one-hour weekly and monthly multidisciplinary case conferences and lectures where collaboration raises the education and improves patient care.

Our residency program teaches all major neurosurgical conditions and procedures, including but not limited to the following:

• Complex intracranial vascular disease such as aneurysms/AVMs
• Trastornos espinales complejos
• Congenital/tethered cord problems
• Adult and pediatric tumors
• Adult and pediatric epilepsy
• Complex peripheral nerve, including brachial plexus, grafting and tumors
• Extracranial cerebrovascular disease
• Surgical management of movement disorders and chronic pain
• Frame and frameless stereotactic craniotomies
• Head and spine stereotactic radiosurgery and radiotherapy
• Adult and pediatric craniotomy-brain tumor
• Adult and pediatric craniotomy-trauma
• Adult craniotomy for intracranial vascular lesion
• Endovascular therapy for tumor or vascular lesion
• Adult cranial-transsphenoidal-sellar/parasellar tumors
• Adult cranial-extracranial vascular procedures
• Adult radiosurgery
• Adult functional procedures
• Adult and pediatric VP shunt
• Pediatric spinal procedures
• Adult spinal-anterior and posterior cervical approaches for decompression/stabilization and craniocervical junction
• Adult spinal-lumbar discectomy
• Adult spinal-thoracic/lumbar instrumentation fusion
• Adult spinal-peripheral nerve procedures
• Adult and pediatric craniotomy-epilepsy
• Craniofacial
• Spinal tumor/AVM

Resident call schedules are designed to maintain compliance with the ACGME's 80-hour work-week restriction. Call schedules are provided on a monthly basis and include information including resident call, advanced practice practitioner call and days off/vacations for all on the call schedule.

The program director views the residents’ scholarly activity as a high priority. Such activity is important to develop habits of scientific inquiry as a continuing professional responsibility. Each resident is encouraged to undertake a research project (clinical research or basic science) at the end of the PGY1 year continuing into the beginning of the PGY2 year. The Baylor Scott & White Office of Sponsored Research Administration (OSRA) is available as a resource for the residents. Training and courses on research skills are taught by OSRA.

Neurosurgery partners with Erxi Wu, PhD who is the director of Cancer Agent Target Discovery and Aptamer Development (CATDAD) Core at the Baylor Scott & White Research Institute in providing comprehensive services for our residents and faculty in research studies.

Examples of research courses include:

• Statistical analysis
• Understanding design of scientific studies
• Evaluating research findings
• Human subject considerations
• Ethical conduct of research

Residents are also allowed to use their elective time to participate in approved projects, and residents are assigned a mentor who will directly supervise them and evaluate their performance. These evaluations and project status updates are provided to the program director to allow monitoring and opportunities for additional training.

Focused, intensive and dedicated research training is provided in PGY-5. During this research dedicated year, residents identify a research faculty supervisor and work in the faculty’s lab for that year. The research activity is expected to result in submission of an abstract to a national neuroscience or neurosurgery meeting and as a manuscript for peer-reviewed publication.