Michael Levy, MD, PhD

Michael L. Levy, MD, PhD, is a board-certified neurosurgeon at UC San Diego Health and chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Rady Children's Hospital San Diego. Dr. Levy's primary surgical interests are in pediatric and vascular neurosurgery.

He has evaluated the longevity and outcome in children with brain tumors and the relationship of certain variables and treatments to their to survival. He has also evaluated survival and predicted models of outcome including surgical management in pediatric and adolescent head trauma and community-based efforts at prevention and communication.

A gifted teacher, Dr. Levy, serves as a professor in the UCSD Neurosurgery resident training program, inspiring the next generation of pediatric neurosurgeons.

His vascular research includes the relationships of cerebral blood flow to cardiac output in patients with aneurysmally induced subarachnoid hemorrhage and vasospasm. His research has led to treatments with both hyperdynamic protocols and the use of inotropes throughout the country. Further research involves the use of rheologic agents to further increase cerebral blood flow and perfusion to ischemic regions of the brain during cerebral vasospasm.

Dr. Levy's other interests include technical methodologies within neurosurgery. He has developed novel techniques of intervention for children and adults using modified endoscopes for catheter placement within the ventricular system of the brain, and using endoscopes as adjuvants during microsurgery. He has further developed picture-in-picture image graphics for the operating microscope and the use of head mounted display systems for both endoscopic and microscopic neurosurgical procedures.

He also studies the 3-dimensional representation of the central nervous system and the relationship of neoplastic and vascular abnormalities to functional structures to maximize both neurosurgical approaches and patient outcome.

He completed his neurosurgical residency at the University of Southern California (USC). He also obtained a PhD degree in biophysics from USC. He then completed a two-year fellowship in pediatric neurological surgery at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. He earned his medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and is board-certified in neurosurgery.

Dr. Levy joined the USC faculty in 1993 and left to join Rady Children's Hospital San Diego in August 2002.

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For more information, see Neurological Care.