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Cerebrovascular surgeon Robert H. Rosenwasser, M.D., FACS, has been named chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.

Dr. Rosenwasser currently is professor of neurosurgery and director of the Division of Cerebrovascular Neurosurgery and Neuroradiology at Jefferson Medical College and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. He succeeds William Buchheit, M.D., who is retiring.

Dr. Rosenwasser, who is also immediate past president of the Society of University Neurosurgeons, is world renowned for his surgical expertise in both preventing and treating life-threatening brain aneurysms. Dr. Rosenwasser does more such operations annually than any other surgeon in the country.

Dr. Rosenwasser has been vice-chair for clinical services in the Department of Neurosurgery at Jefferson Medical College since 2000. He has been fellowship program director for Neurovascular Surgery and Interventional Neuroradiology since 1995 and is director of Interventional Neuroradiology for the Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience.

Thomas Nasca, M.D., dean of Jefferson Medical College, sees Dr. Rosenwasser’s focus on education and training as particularly important for his new role. “Dr. Rosenwasser has been instrumental in providing the best training possible for neurovascular surgeons at Jefferson for nearly a decade,” he says.

“Dr. Rosenwasser has played an important role in the growth of the neurosurgery program at Jefferson University Hospital,” says Thomas J. Lewis, president and CEO of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. “I have no doubt that his expertise and leadership will help to continue Jefferson’s well earned reputation as a premier hospital for neurosurgery.”

He most recently has helped pioneer the use of a soft, flexible stent made of a non-metallic polymer – the first of its kind in the world to be used for brain aneurysms that could not be readily treated surgically. The type of stent, called an intracranial stent, was developed specifically for blood vessels in the brain and for cerebral aneurysms.

Prior to coming to Jefferson in 1994, Dr. Rosenwasser was assistant, then associate professor of neurosurgery at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. From 1985 to 1994, he was director of the Neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit, chief of the Section of Cerebrovascular Surgery and deputy director of the Department of Neurosurgery at Temple University Hospital. He was also residency program director and co-director of the trauma program.

In 1992, he became chief of the Section of Cerebrovascular and Endovascular Neurosurgery there.

He is a member of a number of neurosurgery organizations, including the American Academy of Neurological Surgery, the American Society of Therapeutic and Interventional Neuroradiology, the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the Society of Neurologic Critical Care. He is chairman-elect of the Cerebrovascular Surgery Section, American Association of Neurological Surgeons.

He is author or co-author of three textbooks on vascular disease of the central nervous system and more than 200 publications or abstracts and has lectured widely.

Dr. Rosenwasser received a bachelor of science degree from Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, La., in 1975 and a doctor of medicine degree from Louisiana State University in 1979. He completed his residency at Temple University Hospital in 1985. He completed fellowships in neurovascular surgery, University of Western Ontario, in 1984, and in interventional neuroradiology at New York University in 1993.

Jefferson University Hospital’s Department of Neurosurgery employs the most comprehensive approaches to cerebrovascular disease, cancer and the treatment and prevention of stroke, including microsurgery, endovascular embolization techniques for aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations (AVMs), and stereotactic radiosurgery for brain AVMs and tumors using the region’s first Gamma Knife and dedicated linear accelerator. The program treats the largest volume of aneurysms, brain AVMs and carotid angioplasty and stenting for carotid and intracranial occlusive disease in the nation.