Neil Martin, MD

Professor and W. Eugene Stern Chair of Neurosurgery, Dr. Martin is Head of the UCLA Stroke Center and Director of the Aneurysm and AVM program. Dr. Martin specializes in the research and treatment of neurovascular disorders, including arteriovenous malformation, aneurysm and stroke.

Over the past 10 years the UCLA Neurovascular Program has become recognized as one of the leading centers in the world for the management of vascular disease of the brain and spinal cord. Over that period of time, UCLA neurovascular surgeons have collaborated with colleagues in interventional neuroradiology and stereotactic radiosurgery to treat more than 2000 patients with central nervous system vascular disorders including aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, and carotid and intracranial atherosclerosis.

The UCLA Stroke Center which is affiliated with the Aneurysm and AVM program, teams neurosurgeons with experts in emergency neurology, cerebrovascular neurology, endovascular therapy, neuro-critical care and neurological rehabilitation. The Stroke Center has developed special programs in acute stroke response (the Brain Attack Team) and clinical stroke research. A number of groundbreaking developments in the management of patients with cerebral vascular disease originated at UCLA and were first offered to our patients: these include the GDC system (detachable coils) for aneurysm embolization, and transvenous neuroperfusion for acute stroke.

Several advanced therapeutic techniques, which are not widely available, such as extracranial-intracranial bypass, intra-operative brain mapping, and intracranial angioplasty, are employed regularly at UCLA.

The Neurovascular Surgery program is supported by on-site facilities that are equaled at very few medical centers in the world. These include:

• neurosurgical operating rooms equipped for image-guided stereotaxis,
• neuro-endoscopy,
• intraoperative angiography,
• intraoperative MRI computerized neurosurgical ICU with continuous EEG brain monitoring,
• neuro-endovascular therapy suites for embolization and angioplasty,
• acute stroke unit for Brain Attack patients,
• Clinical Cerebral Blood Flow Laboratory for TCD and CBF evaluation and
• Novalis shaped-beam stereotactic radiosurgery facility.

As an academic center of excellence, we offer patients the opportunity to participate in NIH-sponsored trials of cutting-edge treatments, and are constantly in the process of analyzing our clinical results. This process, which results in publications and presentations at national and international meetings, allows us to judge clinical outcomes critically in an effort to constantly improve quality of care.  

HOSPITAL POSITIONS

• W. Eugene Stern Chair, Department of Neurosurgery, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA 
• Chief, Department of Neurosurgery, UCLA School of Medicine
• Head, Section of Neurovascular Surgery, Department of Neurosurgery, UCLA
• Director, Cerebral Blood Flow Laboratory, Department of Neurosurgery, UCLA
• Medical Director, Neurosurgery ICU, UCLA Medical Center
• Co-Director, UCLA Stroke Center
• Professor, Department of Neurosurgery, UCLA School of Medicine
• Director Neurosurgical Residency Prog., UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles

Good Housekeeping List of Best Stroke Doctors (Neurosurgeons)
Named in "Best Doctors in America" (Neurosurgery, Neurovascular Surgery) since 1997
Listed in Castle Connolly "America's Top Doctors" Editions 3-7 (current)

MEMBERSHIP, MEDICAL ORGANIZATIONS:

• American Academy of Neurological Surgeons
• American Association of Neurological Surgeons
• Brain Attack Coalition Faculty Member
• California Association of Neurological Surgeons
• Congress of Neurological Surgeons
• Joint Section of Cerebrovascular Surgery, AANS/CNS
• Joint Section of Trauma and Critical Care, AANS/CNS
• Neurosurgical Society of America
• Western Neuroradiological Society
• Society of Neurological Surgeons
• Western Neurosurgical Society
• World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies