I have lived in Massachusetts all my life and the best NS I have dealt with are in Boston. They take cases from all over the country and all over the worlds for that matter. I hope you all search for the best that you can find. They are worth the search and you will not regret it. Make sure they are board certified in NS too.

My nsg is Dr. Francis X. Rockett at Newton-Wellesley. I've known him all my life, and before I even told my husband I was preg with my daughter, I called him! He's the best in the world. Who do you see?


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Dr Peter Black is one of the best in Boston

I have heard that. I know several of his patients.



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Dr. Mahmoud Naghib Minneapolis Children's Hospital.. Saved my son!

Kathleen,
Did Ann Ritter not practice in Winston-Salem,NC? When my mom contacted hydroassoc they gave us her name and my current nsg Dr. McLanahan both were about 3 hours away with very good reports. I chose Dr. McLanahan. He saved my life. I had a very faulty shunt for 14 months before we found him. Very good nsg, very consertive with shaving hair. Tried to leave as much as possible. And he is very easy on the skin. Uses desovable stitches,glue and/or tape. Even cleaned up major scars left by other nsgs.
I'm going backward. Dr. Jackson in SC just never tried too much. Did not test a bad shunt I had just took another nsg word it worked.
Dr. Fukes at Duke University.The nsg that put in my faulty shunt and told me I'd just have to learn to live with seizures,tremmors, suisidal thoughts,headaches,balance and motor problems. I had never heard of hydro and he did not offer to give advice. I had to go throught the er just for emergency adjustments waiting up to 11 hours in the waiting room looking at gun shot and stab victims. Always insisted from pushing on the shunt it was working fine. He was a ped nsg and should never have treated me because he did not understand hydro or aldult hydro. And he left me buchared with bad scars. I can deal with pain but I don't know why I didn't die under his care. Dr. McLanahan said for as long as I had the faulty shunt he was not sure what all damage could be reversed. It's taken a while but I am getting better. Still a ways to go but better.
I was sent to Duke by my old nsg in Asheville that just didn't know enough about my problems. He put in my 1st shunt in 1983. Very caring and assumed the shunt did not work after 2 years or so. Dr. Lumus is a very caring nsg but just not very skilled in hydro. But last I saw him was in 2002. I know there is another nsg on the hydroassoc board in Asheville...I think his name is Dr Roden. I'm not switching unless I have to but my ns in Asheville has assured me he knows hydro very well.
Dr. M told me when he was planning to clean up my scars during a revision that now they do the cuts side to side not up and down they don't cause the major scars. One nsg put staples in my abdomen and cause even worse scar. They hurt majorly too...
I have an online friend that Fukes caused issues with and told her too she would have to learn to live with it. She had distal tube wrapped around organs in her belly. Dr. M is also her nsg now.

Wow, this is a great idea. Well, I live in Georgia and the neurosurgeon I had from the time I was 3 months old(when I was diagnosed as having an inoperable cyst at the base of my brain that was causing hydrocephalus) until I was 17 was Dr. Mark Obrien. He was pretty good, but he was also all I had ever known so I was use to him. Last I heard he moved to arizona or arkansas because the malpractice insurance was cheaper there and he was in his 70s by this time. Then I had Dr. Mapstone from the time I was 17 until just after my 19th birthday when he moved to Oaklahoma. He was very into the(I guess its the neurosurgeon frame of mind) that I was a puzzle to be figured out and that if the CT Scan didn't show a problem then there certainly can't be one(news flash, definitely can be huge problems no matter what the CT shows!!!) and he was also always very quick to suggest exploratory surgery. Now the one surgery he did of mine he did good on, but it took forever to get him to listen to me(and I was 18 at the time) that there was a problem no matter what the CT showed, and it ended up with him taking so long to agree with me that I almost had my sight permanently damaged because the fluid had backed up and was pressing on them.
Now the neurosurgeon I have now is awesome. His name is Dr. David Wrubel(he and all of the above I've had out of Egleston Children's Hospital in Atlanta Georgia although Mapstone and O'brien are no longer there). He actually listens to me and doesn't treat me like I'm a puzzle that needs to be solved. He treats me like a person who happens to have a problem that needs to be solved(if you've ever been treated like a puzzle you know what I'm talking about). He took over my care when Mapstone left when I was 19. He is slow to operate, which I love because it means no uneccessary surgery and willing to try whatever he can to avoid operating. He also will listen to me and no matter what try to find the problem going on. Recently I started with bad headaches and had seen him after I went to my primary and ruled every thing else out. I was getting totally discouraged because the CT came back clean and the Nuclear Medicine Radiation treatment came back clean as well. He also tried adjusting the pressure in my head(I have a programable valve) and that just seemed to make things worse. So finally he scheduled me for an MRI, which is something all my other doctors had told me I couldn't have. He did that yesterday and low and behold it shows that my cyst is larger than it was before and because the catheter isn't as far into the cyst as it needs to be, its causing a chiari malformation which was causing the pain in the back of my head. So nothing but good words about Dr. Wrubel, an "eh hes ok but hes kinda old now for Dr O'brien, and a stay away if you like actually being listened too for Dr. Mapstone

I will never understand how some nsgs believe CTs are gospel. They can LIE. When I went in with classic failure symptoms at 13, long before MRI (I didn't have that 'til 25!), I had three CTs to find the blockage. NONE of them found it. I wasn't actually found to have one until I was opened up. Any nsg who insists CTs tell all needs a new job!!

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Dr. Mark Souidane (sp?), Cornell-Weil/NY Presbyterian - can't recommend him highly enough - my son's surgeon for an ETV (of which he performs many); during a shunt implant a year later at another hospital when I couldn't get an answer from the neuro. performing the surgery, I called Mark and he called be back (twice) between his own surgeries, with great advice. Doesn't get any better than that.

John Hopkins, MD.
Has a hydrocephalus center. There're also rated the best in the nation.
The NS, are wonderful.