Neuropathology Rotation

Neuropathology specimens are obtained and examined by residents at UCSF Helen Diller Medical Center at Parnassus Heights, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, and the San Francisco VA Health Care System as part of the general surgical pathology rotations at those institutions. In addition, an elective month in Neuropathology is available at Moffitt Hospital, which is taken by most residents during one of their two AP years. An active Neurosurgery program at UCSF results in nearly 1,200 brain, spinal cord, and muscle biopsies being processed in the Pathology Department at UCSF each year.

Residents rotating on Neuropathology learn to acquire neuropathology specimens and pertinent clinical history from the submitting clinician (a process that may require intraoperative consultation and correlation with neuroradiologic imaging studies), learn to prepare specimens for intraoperative microscopic examination, and learn to formulate a differential diagnosis before signing-out their cases with an attending neuropathologist. Weekly brain cutting conferences and unknown conferences are held at each institution. Residents may present pathology findings to clinicians at the weekly Neuropathology Conference.