The McGill University training program in neurosurgery is currently home to approximately 16 residents trained by 19 faculty representing all of the neurosurgical subspecialties. Like other programs in the province of Quebec, we are currently only accepting 1 CARMS resident every second year, though we also have a large number of residents training with us who originate from medical schools outside of North America.

Training is conducted at 4 hospital sites and while teaching and the hospital system are primarily in English, our faculty are largely bilingual, our patients are in majority francophone and clinical care and communication with patients does occur to a great extent in French.

Hospital training sites are as follows:

Montreal Neurological Hospital — a specialty hospital within the McGill University Health Centre that houses only neurology and neurosurgery patients. There are four dedicated neurosurgery OR’s and a dedicated neuro-intensive care unit and acute receiving unit for emergencies including stroke.

Neurosurgical subspecialties in peripheral nerve and pain, spine surgery, functional surgery and epilepsy, neuro-oncology, skull base, vascular and endovascular are focused at this institution. The MNH is also physically adjacent to the MNI (the research institute for neurology / neurosurgery) and an enormous spirit of research collaboration and opportunity exist here.

Montreal General Hospital — part of the McGill University Health centre that contains our dedicated neuro-trauma unit. Acute spinal surgery training is also obtained at this site with a combined group of orthopaedic and neurosurgeons. ICU, General Surgery, and ER rotations at this site are also part of the Surgical Foundations curriculum.

Montreal Children’s Hospital — a free standing children’s hospital located on the physical site of the new MUHC (McGill University Health Centre) site which opened in 2015. All types of paediatric neurosurgical care are seen here with 3 dedicated paediatric faculty. The site is also physically adjacent to the only Canadian Shriner’s Hospital for Children, which houses our spasticity and myelomeningocele clinics.

Jewish General Hospital — this hospital is home to 3 neurosurgeons, 2 with specialty spine practices (including minimally invasive spinal surgery) and 1 surgeon with a specialized skull base practice. Surgical Foundations may send residents to this site for General Surgery or Vascular surgery rotations.

Royal Victoria Hospital — part of the new MUHC hospital site with the Children’s this hospital will be used for training in the Surgical Foundations program including time in General Surgery, ICU, and vascular surgery. Residents will spend time at each clinical site over their training. Further, even with our transition to a CBD program, we have retained our commitment to offer residents 1 full year of research training, or other clinical electives if they so wish. We have had an excellent track record of graduating residents with MSc or PhD degrees by offering extension to the above research time for those who are so interested.