Prof. Dr. Daniel E. Nijensohn

Honorary Professor, Department of Neurosurgery,
Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

Prof. Dr. Daniel E. Nijensohn,

MD (UNCuyo), MSc (Mayo Clinic, Univ Minn), PhD (UNCuyo, Mza, Arg), FACS, FAANS (L)
Honorary Professor, Neurosurgery, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
Emeritus Chief of Neurosurgery, St Vincent’s Medical Center, Bridgeport, CT, USA
Honorary Staff, Neurosurgery, Bridgeport Hospital, Bridgeport, CT, USA
Former Staff, Yale New Haven Hospital and Yale Gamma Knife Center, New Haven, CT, USA
Past President, Connecticut State Neurosurgical Society

Dr. Daniel E. Nijensohn was born and raised in Mendoza, Argentina where he graduated as physician (MD) from the National University of Cuyo Medical School in 1970 with highest honors. He was the Valedictorian, graduating Summa cum laude and Gold Medalist, ranking First in his Class. A 2012 study done at the National University of Cuyo School of Medicine, found Dr. Nijensohn to be the graduate with the highest grade point average (numerical system) since that medical school was founded in 1950. (See Addendum # 1.)

As a Senior Medical Student (SMS) he served as Medical Volunteer – Mitnadev in Israel in the 1967 Six-Day-War, at Tel-Hashomer Government Military Hospital, Tel Aviv, under Dr. Chaim Sheba.

Dr. Nijensohn interned at the University of Buenos Aires Teaching Hospitals, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He worked at the Institute of Clinical Surgery, Hospital de Clínicas, under Prof. Dr. Mario Brea and at the Institute of Medical Research, under Prof. Dr. Alfredo Lanari.

 In 1970 he immigrated to the United States to train as a neurosurgeon and became a US Citizen in 1980.

He did a rotating surgical internship at Baylor College of Medicine affiliated hospitals, in the Department of Surgery led by Dr. Michael E. DeBakey, at the Texas Medical Center, Houston, Texas. He then moved to Rochester, Minnesota where he did his general surgical and neurosurgical training at the Mayo Clinic, between July 1971 and January 1977. The Department of Neurologic Surgery was then chaired by Dr. Collin S. MacCarty. At the end of his training he was appointed Chief Resident Associate to the Staff, Mayo Clinic and Mayo Graduate School of Medicine (1976-1977.)

While a Resident-Fellow at the Mayo Clinic, he was also enrolled as a Graduate Student, University of Minnesota. He obtained a Master of Science in Neurosurgery, University of Minnesota (MSc), for experimental work done in the laboratory of Dr. Frederick W. L. Kerr, as well as a Doctorate in Medicine with special emphasis in neuroanatomy from the National University of Cuyo Medical School in 1976 (PhD, Doctor en Medicina). He had further fellowship training in microvascular surgery at the University of Vermont in Burlington (Dr. Peardon Donaghy), in stereotactic radiosurgery at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and in spinal reconstruction and stabilization techniques at multiple institutions.

He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Neurological Surgery (DABNS), Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS), and Fellow of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Life- time member (FAANS-L).

He has practiced neurosurgery in Connecticut since January 1977 when he joined Connecticut Neurological Surgeons PC (a group practice started in 1947 in Bridgeport, Connecticut by Dr. Irving J. Sherman, a Walter Dandy trainee). He also was the founding member and consultant at the Neurosurgical Group Brain, Spine and Nerve Center,  1985. His high-volume and diverse general neurosurgical practice included adult and pediatric cases, spine, trauma, neuro-oncology, cerebrovascular, stereotactic and functional, pituitary, carotid artery, peripheral nerve, and Gamma Knife Stereotactic Radiosurgery.

He is Emeritus Staff at St. Vincent’s Medical Center since 2008. He was Chief of Neurosurgery, 1985-2005, Bridgeport, Connecticut, He is Honorary Staff at Bridgeport Hospital, former Active Staff at Yale-New Haven Hospital and at the Yale Gamma Knife Center, New Haven, Connecticut.

Dr. Nijensohn is  Honorary  Professor, Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Neurosurgery, having served in the Clinical Faculty, climbing all the academic ranks, initially in the Section and then in the Department of Neurosurgery, first appointed in 1977 by Dr. William F. Collins, Jr.

He has twice served as President, Connecticut State Neurosurgical Society, and as Trustee, New England Neurosurgical Society. He has been active in local, regional, national, and international neurosurgical organizations, and represented the State of Connecticut for many years at the Joint Council of State Neurosurgical Societies of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. In addition to having been Chief of Neurosurgery at St. Vincent’s Medical Center and having served as Senior Neurosurgeon in all the other Bridgeport Hospitals, he has shown leadership in multiple intramural and extramural activities. Besides being a Professor at the Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Neurosurgery, Dr. Nijensohn has lectured extensively and on many occasions on multiple subjects in Connecticut and throughout New England, Florida, Minnesota, Michigan, New York,  and other places in the US, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Israel, Canada, and many other countries, as well as in the high seas. He has been a Visiting Professor at the Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical Center, Ein Kerem, Jerusalem, Israel; Hospital Angeles, Mexico; Centro Medico Nacional 20 de Noviembre; the Cushing Institute, North Shore University Hospital, Long Island, New York; Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina; University Club, Orlando, Florida; Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota; University of Ottawa Medical Center, Ottawa, Canada; Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina; University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and many other institutions. He delivered a lecture as the featured guest speaker at the 28th International Symposium of Endovascular Therapy (ISET) in Hollywood, Florida in 2016.  He has also delivered lectures at the Beaumont Medical History Club in New Haven, Connecticut in 2015, 2017, and 2018. He has been a Guest Lecturer and Conversationalist in Enrichment Programs aboard cruise ships, with Silversea, Seabourn, Oceania and Viking cruise lines, among others, discussing a wide variety of subjects (see the list of lectures in the appropriate page of this website).

Dr. Nijensohn’s neurosurgical special interests and expertise have included the ethics of neuroscience, medical professionalism, surgical treatment of spine disease (cervical, thoracic and lumbar, both minimally invasive and with reconstruction instrumentation techniques using computer-assisted image-guided navigation) , neurosurgery for pain, as well as of intracranial brain disease such as brain and pituitary tumors, transphenoidal approaches to the pituitary, trigeminal neuralgia (with special emphasis on Gamma Knife radiosurgical treatment) and history of medicine, neurosurgery, psychosurgery and deep brain stimulation and neuromodulation. Dr. Nijensohn and Dr. Forcht-Dagi wrote a chapter on neurosurgical management of psychiatric disease in Kim’s textbook on Treatment Resistance in Psychiatry, edited by Springer and published in Singapore (2019.)

Dr. Nijensohn’s biography was published in the Argentine Journal of Neurosurgery (Revista Argentina de Neurocirugía, Volumen 2, 2010) on July, 2010. View Biography Here

Other biographical essays: