2022 Charlie Kuntz Scholar Award Recipients
Hasan Ahmad
Smartphone-Based Accelerometry for Classification of Peri-Operative Course and Outcomes in Spine Surgery
Ahmed Albayar
Repairing the Injured Rodent Spinal Cord Using Sensory and Motor Micro-tissue Engineered Neural Networks
Ammar Alsalahi
Does Laminectomy Width Predict Postop C5 Palsy After Posterior Cervical Decompression Fusion: A Comparative Cohort Study
Vikram Chakravarthy
Separation Surgery and Adjuvant Stereotactic Radiation for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Analysis of 103 Cases
Andrew Chan
Is the CMS Hierarchical Condition Category Risk Adjustment Model Satisfactory for Quantifying Spine Surgical Risk?
Sai Chilakapati
Cognitive Impairment is Associated with Higher Rates of Postoperative Complications After Spine Surgery
Pravesh Gadjradj
Cost Effectiveness of Full-endoscopic Discectomy vs. Microdiscectomy for Sciatica: a RCT with 24 month follow-up
Jacob Goldberg
Improvement in Resident Performance for Minimally-Invasive Lumbar Decompression Using a State-of-the-Art Simulator
Travis Hamilton
Application of Machine Learning for a Prediction Model for Patient Reported Outcomes After lumbar surgery: A MSSIC Study
Kevin Huang
Creating a Spine Healthcare Resource Utilization Scale (SHRUS) to Complement PROMs in Assessing Surgical Success
Michael Lawless II
Cervical Alignment and Patient-Reported Outcomes in Posterior Cervical Fusion: A Longitudinal Comparative Cohort Study
Robert McCabe
Preventing Surgical Site Hematoma with Topical Tranexamic Acid in Lumbosacral Surgery: A Quality Improvement Project
Giorgos Michalopoulos
Comparing Posterior Cervical Foraminotomy with ACDF in Radiculopathic Patients: An Analysis from the QOD
Anthony Mikula
Lower Hounsfield Units Are Associated with Proximal Junctional Kyphosis and Failure at the Upper Thoracic Spine
Jose Orenday
Systemic Antibiotic Management after Spine Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Alp Ozpinar
ASD Patient Outcomes Planned for a Two-staged Scoliosis Correction: A Case for Standalone Anterolateral MIS Fusion
Paul Page
Development and Validation of a Predictive Model for Failure of Medical Management in Spinal Epidural Abscesses
Zachariah Pinter
Favorable Prognosis for Significant Preoperative Upper Extremity Weakness Following ACDF
Yamaan Saadeh
Timing of Nerve Transfer Surgery for C5 Palsy: Does Recovery at 6 Months Predict Final Recovery?
Saman Shabani
The Rates of Proximal Junctional Kyphosis After L4 Versus L3 Pedicle Subtraction Osteotomies
2021 Charlie Kuntz Scholar Award Recipients
Owoicho Adogwa
Decisional Regret Among Older Adults Undergoing Corrective Surgery for Adult Spinal Deformity
Khaled Alok
The Effects of Connexin Inhibitors on the Outcomes of a Porcine Spinal Cord Injury Model
Safwan Alomari
Outcomes of Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion Correlate with the Specialty of the Surgeon Performing the Procedure
John Burke
Injury Volume Extracted from MRI Predicts Neurologic Outcome in Acute SCI: A Prospective TRACK-SCI Pilot Study
Chad Claus
Effect of Morbid Obesity on Complications, Readmission, and PROs after MIS TLIF: An Inverse Propensity Score Analysis
Islam Fayed
Single Position Lateral Lumbar Fusion with Robot-assisted Pedicle Screws: Analysis and Comparison to Prone Screws
Daryl Fields
Surgical Timing of TLICS 4 Fractures Impacts Long-term Pain Outcomes
Yaroslav Gelfand
Comparison of C5 Palsy Incidence in Laminectomy and Fusion Versus Laminoplasty
Dayton Grogan
Use of the Relative Citation Ratio as a Measure of Academic Neurological Spine Surgeon Productivity
Nikita Lakomkin
Abaloparatide Increases Bone Mineral Density in Potential Spine Surgery Candidates with Osteoporosis
Seokchun Lim
Risk Factors for Not Reaching MCID at 90 days and 1 year after Elective Lumbar Spine Surgery
Daniel Lubelski
Dorsal Root Entry Zone Lesioning for Chronic Neuropathic Pain Secondary to Brachial Plexus Avulsion
Anthony Mikula
Lower Hounsfield Units at the Upper Instrumented Vertebrae are Associated with Proximal Junctional Kyphosis and Failure
Ali Moghaddamjou
Spontaneous Recovery in Patients with an ASIA A Spinal Cord Injury: Analysis of Multicentre Data in 943 Cases
Whitney Muhlestein
Non-surgical Management of Shoulder Subluxation after Nerve Reconstruction for Neonatal Brachial Plexus Palsy
Daniel Myers
Characterization of Intervertebral Disc Inflammation Following Discectomy for Treatment of Lumbar Disc Herniation
Zach Pennington
Surgical Approaches to Tumors of the Occipito-cervical, Subaxial Cervical, and Cervicothoracic Spine
Brandon Sherrod
Differences between Anterior and Posterior Approaches for Treatment of Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy
Tolga Sursal
Involvement of mTOR Pathway Modulates Autophagy and Immune Response in Recovery from Spinal Cord Injury
Timothy Wang
Rate of Pseudarthrosis Following Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion using Allograft Cellular Bone Matrix
Yagiz Yolcu
Carbon Ion Radiotherapy for Sacral Chordomas: An Institutional/National Comparison of Outcomes with Surgery and RT
2020 Charlie Kuntz Scholar Award Recipients
Oliver Ayling
Patient Reported Outcomes for Lumbar Spinal Stenosis: Comparison of a Universal and Multitier Health Care System
John Burke
Ultra-Early Surgery (<12 hrs) Correlates with Improvement in Motor Recovery after Spinal Cord Injury: A TRACK-SCI Study
Andrew Chan
Decompression and Fusion Versus Decompression Alone for Grade I Degenerative Lumbar Spondylolisthesis
Ken Chang
Radiological and Clinical Outcomes of Three-level Cervical Disc Arthroplasty
Lee Chieng
Does Spinopelvic Parameters Matter in Short-Segment Posterior Lumbar Spinal Fusion? A Meta- Analysis
Samuel Farber
Long-Term Radiographic Outcomes in Patients Undergoing Four and Five Level ACDF Without Posterior Supplementation
Nida Fatima
Development of Predictive Model for 30-days Complications Following Posterior Cervical Fusion
Yaroslav Gelfand
Effect of Cage Type on Radiographic Outcomes in TLIF
Jakub Godzik
High Radiation Burden of Minimally Invasive Approaches to Adult Spinal Deformity
Jacob Hoffman
The Association of Preoperative Narxcheck Scores and Perioperative Outcomes in Posterior Cervical Surgery Patients
Anshit Goyal
Impact of Opioid Prescribing Guidelines on Postoperative Narcotic Prescriptions Following Elective Spine Surgery
Michael Karsy
Outcomes and Complications with Age in Spondylolisthesis: An Evaluation from the Quality Outcomes Database
Mena Kerolus
An ERAS Pathway Following Single-level MIS TLIF Significantly Decreases LOS
Darryl Lau
Multiple Rod Constructs and use of BMP2 Results in Lower Rod Fracture Following Lumbar Pedicle Subtraction Osteotomy
Allan Martin
The Natural History of Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy: An Ambispective Longitudinal Cohort Study
Anthony Mikula
Patients with Bilateral Sacroiliac Joint Vacuum Sign have a Change in Pelvic Incidence between Supine and Standing
Nikhil Murthy
Could Botulinum Toxin Pre-conditioning be an Ancillary Therapy to Improve Motor Nerve Transfer Surgery?
Harry Mushlin
The Effect of Elevated Mean Arterial Blood Pressure in Cervical Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury with Hemorrhagic Contusion
Roberto Perez Roman
The Risk of Peripheral Nerve Tumor Biopsy in Suspected Benign Etiologies
Checai Wang
Characterizing Cortical Plasticity of Patient with Cervical Spondylosis Associated with Neck Pain
Michael Yang
Development and Validation of a Prediction Score for Poor Postoperative Pain Control Following Elective Spine Surgery
2019 Charlie Kuntz Scholar Award Recipients
Owoicho Adogwa
Long Term Costs of Maximum Non-Operative Treatments in Patients with Symptomatic Lumbar Stenosis or Spondylolisthesis that Ultimately Required Surgery: A Five Year Costs Analysis
Mohammed Alvi
Assessing the Differences in Characteristics of Patients Lost to Follow-up at 2 years: Results from the Multi-Site Quality Outcomes Database (QOD) Study of Impact of Fusion on Outcomes of Grade 1 Spondylolisthesis
Oliver Ayling
The Effect of Peri-Operative Adverse Events on Long-term Patient Reported Outcomes after Lumbar Spine Surgery
Andrew Chan
Utility of Crossing the Cervicothoracic Junction During Laminectomy and Posterior Spinal Fusion Surgery for Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy
Islam Fayed
Posterior Cervical Fusion: Analysis of Revision Rate Related to Crossing the Cervicothoracic Junction
Shashank Gandhi
Surgery for Potentially Unstable Spinal Metastasis Reduces 90-Day-Admissions
Jack Haglin
An Analysis of Medicare Reimbursement Rates in Spine Surgery: 2000–2018
Allen Ho
Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS): Implementation in Posterior Lumbar Fusion Surgery
Sertac Kirnaz
Retrospective Review of Immediate Restoration of Lordosis in Single-level Minimally Invasive Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion (MI-TLIF): A Comparison of Static and Expandable Interbody Cages
Mohamed Macki
Drivers of Episode Payments for Non-Cervical Spinal Fusion
Anthony Mikula
Teriparatide Treatment Improves Bone Quality in the Lumbar Spine Out of Proportion to DEXA Changes
Aria Nouri
The Influence of Cervical Spondylolisthesis on Clinical Presentation and Surgical Outcome in Patients with Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy: Analysis of a Multicenter Global Cohort of 458 Patients
Zachary Sanford
Analysis of the Hierarchical Condition Category (HCC) Score as a Predictor for Increased Risk for Complication and Resource Utilization Following Spine Surgeries
Allison Teles
Burnout and Quality of Life in Spine Surgeons: Results of a Worldwide Survey
Zoe Teton
Use of Polyetheretherketone Interbody Devices for Multi-Level Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion Results in a Three-Fold Higher Rate of Pseudarthrosis Compared to Structural Allograft
Jamie Wilson
The Impact of Older Age on Functional Recovery after Surgical Decompression for Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy: Results from an International, Multicentre, Prospective Dataset in 757 patients.
Michael Yang
Residual Exposed Endplate Predicts High Grade Heterotopic Ossification in Cervical Disc Arthroplasty
Hesham Zakaria
Ambulation on POD#0 is Associated with Decreased Adverse Events After Elective Lumbar Spine Surgery: Analysis of the Michigan Spine Surgery Improvement Collaborative (MSSIC)
Scott Zuckerman
Which patients undergoing ACDF are most appropriate for an ambulatory surgery center? A pilot study
2018 Charlie Kuntz Scholar Award Recipients
Yi-Ren Chen
Patient Satisfaction and Press Ganey Scores for Spine versus Non-Spine Neurosurgery Clinics
Lee Chieng
Preoperative Narcotic Consumption – Does It Affect Outcome?
Michael Cloney
Factors Associated with Venous Thromboembolic Events in Spine Surgery Patients in the Intensive Care Setting: A Single-Institution Experience with 1269 Consecutive Patients
Shashank Gandhi
Development of Proximal Junctional Kyphosis After Minimally Invasive Lateral Anterior Column Realignment for Adult Spinal Deformity
Jakub Godzik
Decreasing Radiation Exposure in Minimally Invasive Spinal Surgery with Ultra-Low Radiation Imaging and Image Enhancement: A Prospective Cohort Study of Consecutive Patients
Jian Guan
Preliminary Return to Work Data from the Multi-Center Prospective, Randomized CSM-S Study: Approach Matters
Allen Ho
Analysis of Outcomes and Cost of Inpatient and Ambulatory Anterior Cervical Disk Replacement Using a State-level Database
Ibrahim Hussain
Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Seeded High-Density Collagen Gel for Annular Repair: 6 Week Results from in Vivo Sheep Models
Katie Krause
Use of Polyetheretherketone Interbody Devices for One-level Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion Results in a Five-fold Higher Rate of Pseudarthrosis Compared to Structural Allograft
Darryl Lau
The Applicability of Cervical Sagittal Vertical Axis, Lordosis, and T1-slope on Pain and Disability Outcomes after Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion
Jay Nathan
Early Kyphoplasty is Associated with Reduced Risk of Persistent Opioid Prescribing for Nearly 12,000 Privately- Insured Patients with Osteoporotic Vertebral Fractures
Tianyi Niu
Electrical neuromodulation of the cervical spinal cord facilitates forelimb skilled function recovery in spinal cord injured rats
Imran Noorani
Genome-Wide Transposon Mutagenesis Screening Identifies Novel Genetic Drivers and Oncogenic Networks in Spinal Gliomas
Eric Sankey
Development of a Frailty Index for Primary Spinal Tumors
Ganesh Shankar
Modern Targeted Adjuvant Therapies Improves Postoperative Outcomes in Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma to the Spine
Corey Walker
Implementation of a Standardized Multimodal Analgesia Protocol Improves Pain-related Outcomes, Decreases Hospital Stay and Reduces Opioid Consumption After Posterior Lumbar Spinal Fusion Surgery
Vijay Yanamadala
Misdiagnosis is a Prevalent Cause of Inappropriate Lumbar Spine Surgery
Juneyoung Yi
Effect of Body Mass Index as a Continuous Variable on 30-Day Postoperative Complications in Posterior Lumbar Fusion: An Analysis of the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program
Hesham Zakaria
Patient Demographic Factors Which Affect Patient Reported Outcomes (PRO) Completion 1 Year After Spine Surgery: Analysis from the Michigan Spine Surgery Improvement Collaborative (MSSIC)
2017 Charlie Kuntz Scholar Award Recipients
Vincent Alentado
Predictors for Obtaining a Postoperative Improvement Over the Minimum Clinically Important Difference After Lumbar Decompression Surgery
Michael Cloney
The Effect of Steroids on Complications, Readmission, and Reoperation After Posterior Lumbar Spinal Fusion: An Analysis of 8492 Patients Using the ACS-NSQIP Database
Doniel Drazin
Vitamin D in Multi-level Anterior Cervical Fusion: Interim Results from a Multi-Center Comparative Effectiveness Study
Benjamin Elder
Comparing the Efficacy of Adipose-Derived vs. Bone Marrow-Derived Stem Cells in Combination with a Clinical- Grade Bone Graft Substitute in a Rat Model of Spinal Fusion
Rory Goodwin
Development of a Preoperative Metastatic Spinal Tumor Frailty Index (MSTFI) Using a Nationwide Database and Its Association with Inpatient Morbidity, Mortality, and Length of Stay
George Ghobrial
Preoperative Skin Antisepsis with Chlorhexidine Gluconate Versus Povidone-Iodine: A Prospective Analysis of 6959 Consecutive Spinal Surgery Patients
Peter Grunert
Biomechanical Evaluation of Lumbar Decompression Adjacent to Instrumented Segments
Daipayan Guha
Optical Topographic Imaging for Intra-Operative Three-Dimensional Navigation in the Cervical Spine: Accuracy Validation and Initial Clinical Feasibility
Ibrahim Hussain
Patient-Reported Outcomes After Surgical Stabilization of Spinal Tumors: Symptom-Based Validation of the Spinal Instability Neoplastic Score (SINS) and Surgery
Christian Iorio-Morin
Quality of Life After Spinal Cord Injury—Results from a Canadian National Cross-sectional Survey
Michael Karsy
The Functional, Histologic and Electrophysiologic Outcomes After Rapid-Stretch Nerve Injury
Evan Lytle
Minimally Effective Dose of Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP) in Minimally Invasive (MIS) Lumbar Interbody Fusions 757 Patients in a Dose-finding Statistical Modeling Cohort Study
Allan Martin
Quantitative Multi-Parametric Spinal Cord MRI Detects Subclinical Tissue Injury in Asymptomatic Cervical Spinal Cord Compression
Meghan Murphy
Allograft Versus Autograft: A Comparison of Postoperative Morbidity in Spinal Fusions Using the ACS-NSQIP Registry
Aria Nouri
Congenital Cervical Spine Stenosis in a Global Cohort of Patients with Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy: A Report Based on a MRI Diagnostic Criterion
Vijay Ravindra
Laminoplasty vs. Laminectomy-Fusion for the Treatment of Cervical Myelopathy: Preliminary Results from the CSM-Study Comparing Cervical Sagittal Alignment and Clinical Outcomes
Ahilan Sivaganesan
The Inescapability of Variation in Outcomes After Lumbar Spine Surgery: Insights from the National Neurosurgery Quality and Outcomes Database
Vijay Yanamadala
Multidisciplinary Evaluation Leads to the Decreased Utilization of Lumbar Spine Fusion: An Observational Cohort Pilot Study
Michael Yang
Radiological Predictors of Kyphosis After Thoracolumbar Burst Fractures Managed Using Thoracolumbarsacral Orthosis and Long-term Follow-up of Outcomes
Scott Zuckerman
Outcomes of Surgery For Sacral Chordoma and Impact of Complications: A Report of 50 Consecutive Patients with Long- term Follow-up
2016 Charlie Kuntz Scholar Award Recipients
Nitin Agarwal
Early Post–operative Outcomes for Elderly Patients Undergoing Single Level Decompression for Lumbar Disk Herniation
Andrew Chan
Rate of Peri–operative Neurological Complications After Surgery for Cervical Spinal Cord Stimulation
Ekamjeet Dhillon
Timing and Risks of Chemoprophylaxis Following Spinal Surgery: A Single Center Experience with 6870 Patients
Doniel Drazin
Spine Surgery in Octogenarians: Analysis of 14,108 Patients in the MarketScan Longitudinal Database
Benjamin Elder
The Effects of High–dose Parathyroid Hormone (1-34) on Posterolateral Lumbar Spinal Fusion in a Rabbit Model
Gurpreet Gandhoke
Predictive Value of Intraoperative Neurophysiological Monitoring During Spine Surgery: A Prospective Analysis of 4489 Consecutive Patients
Ezequiel Goldschmidt
The Effect of Vancomycin Powder on Human Dural Fibroblast Culture and Its Implications for Dural Repair After Spine Surgery
Randall Graham
Cranial Center of Mass Alignment May Influence Proximal Junctional Kyphosis in the Setting of Normal Sagittal Vertical Axis
Kiyoshi Ito
Utility of Nonpenetrating Titanium Clips for Dural Closure During Spinal Surgery to Prevent Postoperative Cerebrospinal Fluid Leakage
Ricky Kalra
Intraoperative O–arm® Imaging Versus Stimulus– evoked Electromyography for Evaluation of Pedicle Screw Breaches: A Prospective Study of 1006 Screws in 164 Cases
Darryl Lau
Comparison of Outcomes Following Laminoplasty Versus Laminectomy with Posterior Spinal Fusion for Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy: Matched Cohorts of Regional Sagittal Balance
Rory Mayer
C5 Palsy After Cervical Decompression: Socioeconomic Cost Analysis and Implications for Treatment
Marcus Mazur
Symptomatic Adjacent Segment Degeneration After Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion: A Long–term MRI Analysis
Michael Mcdowell
Progressive Improvement in Sagittal Balance Following Surgical Correction of Adult Spinal Deformity
Catherine Miller
Integrating Business and Medicine: Cost Analysis of Spinal Fusions at the University of Minnesota
Nelson Moussazadeh
Epigenetic Profiling Reveals a Unique Histone Code in Chordoma
Rory Murphy
Diffusion Basis Spectrum Imaging Detects and Differentiates Axonal and Myelin Injury From Inflammation in Spinal Cord Injury
Tianyi Niu
Aquaporin–1 Expression in Herniated Human Lumbar Intervertebral Discs
Aria Nouri
The Relationship Between Preoperative Clinical Presentation and Quantitative MRI Features in Patients with Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy
Alp Ozpinar
Does Side Matter: Correction, Outcomes and Complications When Approaching the Lateral Curve via the Concavity or Convexity in Adult Degenerative Scoliosis
Brenton Pennicooke
Annular Repair Using High–density Collagen Gel Seeded with Fibrochondrocytes in a Rat Model
Kavelin Rumalla
Spinal Fusion for Pediatric Spondylolisthesis: National Trends, Complications, and Short–term Outcomes
David Salvetti
Prospective Series Analyzing Preoperative Prealbumin Levels and Risk of Postoperative Surgical Site Infection
Hesham Soliman
Diffusion Tensor Imaging in a Large Series of CSM Patients Correlates with Long–term Functional Outcome
Zachary Tempel
Graft Subsidence as a Predictor of Revision Surgery Following Stand–alone Lateral Lumbar Interbody Fusion
Alexandar Tuchman
An In Vitro Biomechanical Model of Segmental Thoracic Fixation for Spinal Deformity Correction
Anand Veeravagu
The Development of a Novel Risk Assessment Algorithm for Adverse Event Prediction in Spine Surgery
Todd Vogel
Risk factors for 30–day Re–operation and 90–day Readmission: Analysis from the National Neurosurgery Quality and Outcomes Database Lumbar Spine Registry