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Ellen L. Air, MD, PhD

Faculty Neurosurgeon

University of Cincinnati College of Medicine

Phone: 513-636-4726

Email: ellen.air@cchmc.org

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Specialties

Movement disorders; epilepsy; deep brain stimulation; chronic pain syndromes; spinal cord stimulation

Biography

Ellen Air, MD, PhD joined the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery in September 2011. After earning her doctorate and medical degrees at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, she completed her residency in neurosurgery with the UC Department of Neurosurgery. Dr. Air continued her training with a fellowship in neurosurgical treatment of epilepsy, movement disorders, and pain at the University of California, San Francisco and San Francisco VA Medical Center.

Dr. Air specializes in the use of deep brain stimulation for the treatment of dystonia, a disabling movement disorder which often presents in childhood. She brings particular expertise in the use of real-time magnetic resonance imaging to guide deep brain stimulator placement. This approach allows for highly accurate placement with improved patient comfort. In addition, Dr. Air treats a variety of chronic intractable pain syndromes using spinal cord stimulation which delivers electrical stimulation to the spinal cord, interrupting pain signals traveling to the brain.

In addition to seeing patients at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Dr. Air is in private practice with Mayfield Clinic. She also serves as assistant professor of neurosurgery and director of the Division of Epilepsy at UC, and is a member of the UC Epilepsy Center and the UC Neuroscience Institute.

Dr. Air's professional memberships include the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Congress of Neurological Surgeons, American Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, World Society of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, Women in Neurosurgery, and the American Medical Association. She is board-eligible with the American Board of Neurological Surgeons (ABNS).

Education and Training

PhD: University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, 2002.

MD: University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, 2004.

Residency: University of Cincinnati Department of Neurosurgery 2004-2010.

Fellowship: Epilepsy, Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, San Francisco VA Medical Center and University of California, San Francisco; 2011.

Publications

View PubMed Publications

Air EL, Ostrem JL, Sanger TD, Starr PA. Deep brain stimulation in children: experience and technical pearls. J Neurosurg. 2011.

Air EL, Vagal AA, Kendler A, McPherson CM. Isolated cerebellar mucormycosis, slowly progressive over 1 year in an immunocompetent patient. Surg Neurol Int. 2010 Dec 13;1:81.

Air EL, Yuan W, Holland SK, Jones BV, Bierbrauer K, Altaye M, Mangano FT. Longitudinal comparison of pre- and postoperative diffusion tensor imaging parameters in young children with hydrocephalus. J Neurosurg Pediatr. 2010 Apr;5(4):385-91.

Yuan W, Mangano FT, Air EL, Holland SK, Jones BV, Altaye M, Bierbrauer K. Anisotropic diffusion properties in infants with hydrocephalus: a diffusion tensor imaging study. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2009 Oct;30(9):1792-8.

Air EL, Leach JL, Warnick RE, McPherson CM. Comparing the risks of frameless stereotactic biopsy in eloquent and noneloquent regions of the brain: a retrospective review of 284 cases. J Neurosurg. 2009 Oct;111(4):820-4.

Kissela B, Lindsell CJ, Kleindorfer D, Alwell K, Moomaw CJ, Woo D, Flaherty ML, Air E, Broderick J, Tsevat J. Clinical prediction of functional outcome after ischemic stroke: the surprising importance of periventricular white matter disease and race. Stroke. 2009 Feb;40(2):530-6.

Air EL, Ghomri YM, Tyagi R, Grande AW, Crone K, Mangano FT. Management of vagal nerve stimulator infections: do they need to be removed?J Neurosurg Pediatr. 2009 Jan;3(1):73-8.

Book Chapters

Air EL and Barbaro NM. Radiosurgery for the Treatment of Epilepsy. In Quinones A (Ed), Schmidek and Sweet’s Operative Neurosurgical Techniques: Indications, Methods, and Results. 6th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier, 2011.

Air EL, Abruzzo TA, Ringer AJ. Embolization of epistaxis. In Connolly ES, McKhann GM, Huang J, Choudhri TF, Komotar RJ, and Mocco J (Eds), Fundamentals of Operative Techniques in Neurosurgery. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Thieme, 2010.

Grants

Development of a system for the rapid detection of high-frequency oscillations during epilepsy surgery. Mayfield Neuroscience Research and Education Fund. 2011 - 2012.