Setti S. Rengachary, M.D.
Professor and Associate Academic Chairman

Neurological Surgery Department
University Health Center
4201 St. Antoine 6E
Detroit, Michigan 48201
Office: (313) 993-0908
Fax: (313) 745-4099
email: srengachary@neurosurgery.wayne.edu

The accredited neurosurgery residency program at Wayne State University has trained neurosurgeons since 1946 under the auspices of the American Board of Neurological Surgery. Our clinical fellowship in Reconstructive and Spinal Surgery has existed since 1991 and is designed to prepare fully trained neurosurgeons for subspeciality practice in the areas of spine disease, trauma, reconstruction and instrumentation. The Wayne State University Neurological Surgery program has trained six clinical fellows since the beginning of the fellowship, all of whom are practicing neurosurgeons.

All activities of the fellowship stem from the accredited neurosurgery residency program. All fellows applying for the clinical fellowship in Reconstructive and Spinal Surgery are required to have passed the ECFMG licensing exam and satisfactorily completed their primary residency program. Funding for the fellowship is through the Neurological Surgery Department and the Fund for Medical Research and Education. The clinical fellowship is of one year duration, but may be extended to two years.

The fellow spends one month rotating through all neurosurgery services to become familiar with the university system. The spine fellow spends 25% of his or her time in the research lab completing a required project under the supervision of the academic faculty. The fellow has access to the operating microscope, operative drills, and microsurgical equipment in the research lab, and is expected to do a retrospective analysis and a prospective study in the various disease processes that involve the spine and biomedical instrumentation. These projects are expected to result in publications in major referred journals. The Reconstructive and Spine fellow attends an active schedule of conferences that are also attended by the faculty and residents. Conferences include neurosurgical grand rounds, spine conference, spine journal club, neuro oncology conference, neuropathology conference, neuroradiology conference, neurotrauma conference, clinicopathological conference, morbidity and mortality conference, and special didactic lectures. The remaining experiences for the fellow are operative in nature in the adult population, with optional experiences in the pediatric population.

The Reconstructive and Spinal Surgery Fellow participates in approximately 250 of the 300 spine cases done each year in two institutions. The fellow becomes educated in all aspects of the clinical diagnosis, preoperative assessment, intraoperative procedures, and postoperative management of patients with spine pathology, disease, neoplasm and trauma. The fellow acquires knowledge of instrumentation pertinent to reconstructive neurosurgical pathology, and expertise in use of spinal instrumentation technology. The fellow also covers emergency care at Harper Hospital and Detroit Receiving Hospital. The fellow actively participates in outpatient clinic, is involved in preoperative assessment and postoperative follow-up care. The spine fellow responds to consults directed to the spine service under the direction of staff.