Shah Named Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery

Manish N. Shah, MD, professor of pediatric surgery, John P. and Kathrine G. McGovern Distinguished Chair, and THINK Neurology Chair in Pediatric Tumor Research and Innovation at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, has been named director of the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery at McGovern Medical School. Shah is fellowship-trained in pediatric neurosurgery with special expertise in pediatric brain and spine tumor, brainstem and spinal cavernous malformations, pediatric epilepsy, craniofacial, and craniocervical spine surgery.

A global authority in the surgical management of spasticity and dystonia in children, Shah performs selective dorsal rhizotomies (SDR) and advanced deep brain stimulation (DBS). He has improved the SDR technique and its postoperative mobilization and rehabilitation paradigms, leading to better outcomes more rapidly for children. He also directs the new Pediatric Movement Disorders Center at UTHealth Houston, where an expert multidisciplinary team helps children with complex conditions gain control of their movements and maximize their independence through highly coordinated care.

Shah received his undergraduate degree in physics at Princeton University and his medical degree at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He completed neurosurgery residency training at Washington University/Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. Following residency, he completed fellowship training in pediatric neurosurgery at Washington University/St. Louis Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, under the tutelage of Tae Sung Park, MD. During his neurosurgical training, he completed a National Institutes of Health-sponsored research fellowship in neurological surgery, radiology, and functional neuroimaging under Marcus Raichle, MD. He had additional training as a specialist registrar in neurological surgery at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, under Ciaran Bolger, PhD, an expert in spine surgery. Shah is the principal investigator in an NIH-funded neuroimaging laboratory.

Shah has contributed substantively to the field of neuroimaging to improve screening of patients for epilepsy and movement disorder surgery. He also has helped reduce pediatric radiation exposure in the diagnosis of blunt cerebrovascular injury with the conception and multicenter validation of the McGovern Pediatric BCVI Screening Score. He has a particular clinical interest in pediatric movement disorders, epilepsy, brain and spinal cord tumors, as well as brainstem and spinal cord cavernous malformations. He has won numerous clinical and research awards including the Benjy Brooks Outstanding Faculty Award at McGovern Medical School as well as the American Association of Neurological Surgeons’ Young Neurosurgeons Committee Public Service Citation for his work with the children of Haiti through Project Medishare.