The Department of Neurosurgery at Mayo Clinic's campus in Jacksonville, Florida, includes subspecialty teams in complex and minimally invasive spine, cerebrovascular, tumor, skull base, and functional neurosurgery.

Many cases are straightforward neurosurgical problems, which include brain tumors, cerebral aneurysms, and spinal disease. This allows neurosurgical residents to become skilled in the management of typical neurosurgical problems. However, many complex cases are nationally or internationally referred to Mayo Clinic neurologists and neurosurgeons for evaluation and treatment. These difficult cases often require a multidisciplinary team approach to patient care, which broadens the educational opportunities for residents.

Surgical volumes

The average neurosurgical caseload at Mayo Clinic in Florida is approximately 2,500 major operations a year, including:

• Operations for brain tumor
• Operations for trauma
• Operations for vascular diseases (aneurysm, arteriovenous malformation [AVM], carotid, bypass)
• Transsphenoidal operations
• Operations for functional disorders (epilepsy, movement, pain).
• Peripheral nerve procedures
• Endovascular procedures
• Spinal procedures, including intradural spinal tumor and  cases of complex spinal disease involving instrumentation
• Average chief resident operative caseload is approximately 450 operations a year

Skills laboratories

As a Mayo Clinic neurosurgery resident, you have access to several state-of-the-art skills labs for refinement of your techniques outside the operating room. These include cadaveric labs with full endoscopic and microscopic support, as well as a state of the art 3D-printed stimulation laboratory.

Additionally, four formal courses on open skull base techniques, endoscopic skull base techniques, microvascular anastomoses, and spinal instrumentation are completed by all residents prior to graduation, with further opportunities for formal instruction available to interested residents.

Faculty

In addition to caring for patients in their clinical practices, Mayo Clinic's faculty members are committed to teaching and facilitating the resident's development as a neurosurgeon. Many of the department faculty have published and lectured extensively and are well-regarded for their specialty and subspecialty expertise. All residents have close and frequent contact with these individuals throughout the training experience.

Advisers and mentors

At the start of the PGY-2 or PGY-3 year, residents select or are assigned to neurosurgery faculty mentors. This relationship is established early in residency to encourage longitudinal development of a mentoring relationship, and to promise access to faculty members for advice throughout residency.

Mentors are expected to give close attention to the your goals, objectives, and spectrum of operative experience throughout the training program. The mentor can also help you choose a research project, give guidance about post-residency career planning, and serve as an advocate in post-training placement.

The chair is also intimately involved in the counseling and guiding of residents both during and after their tenures. Annual meetings are arranged between you and the chair to provide another mentoring perspective, individualize your training program, and discuss options for advanced subspecialty training pertaining to your career and professional aspirations.

Visiting professors

Many prominent professors visit Mayo Clinic each year. They present their work during lectures, participate in hospital rounds and have informal discussions with trainees. You are encouraged to take full advantage of these educational opportunities.

From the chairman

On behalf of the faculty, residents, and staff of the Department of Neurosurgery, I am pleased to welcome you to the special field of neurosurgery, and to our comprehensive training program at Mayo Clinic Florida. It is our honor and passion to train the next generation of neurosurgery leaders in a very busy and well-balanced program. As a part of the Mayo Clinic system, the department maintains the same values, and continues the same rich tradition in neurosurgery training established over one hundred years ago.

Since its founding, the growth of the department of neurosurgery has paralleled the extraordinary growth of Mayo Clinic Florida and will continue to grow over the decades to come. Thirteen full time clinical faculty at Mayo Clinic Florida, thirty-four associate faculty, 11 APPs and our 5 research faculty all participate in the training of our residents. Residents also rotate at Wolfson’s Children’s Hospital and University of Florida Jacksonville to augment their experience in pediatric and trauma neurosurgery.

We encourage resident-applicants to visit our program for externships and interviews. You are welcome to visit our neurosurgery program and learn the advantages of working and living near the ocean in one of the fastest growing regions of the country in beautiful northeast Florida.

Richard Byrne, M.D.
Chair, Neurologic Surgery