Associate professor
University of Chicago
Dr. Polster is a board-certified, fellowship-trained neurosurgeon who specializes in minimally invasive surgery of the brain and spine in both adults and children. Dr. Polster’s practice primarily focuses on treating neurovascular conditions of the head and neck as well as tumors of the brain and skull base. He is an expert in performing complex surgical procedures, including neurovascular surgery, endoscopic endonasal approach (EEA) neurosurgery, transorbital neuroendoscopic surgery (TONES) and open cranial neurosurgery are just some of the procedures. Dr. Polster and his clinical team have a robust infrastructure to help patients navigate their healthcare from diagnosis through follow-up. We work as a Center of Excellence in many disease processes and pride ourselves on delivering the very best information and treatment for patients.
As a physician-scientist, Dr. Polster is continuously researching new treatments and techniques to improve care for neurosurgery patients. As the endowed Safadi Faculty Scholar, the Polster laboratory is engaged in pre-clinical research and clinical trials to deliver the most cutting-edge treatments to patients. His work has been published in several, highly respected, peer-reviewed journals, such as Nature Communications, Neurosurgery, Stroke, JNS, Surgical Neurology International, Journal of Stroke & Cerebrovascular Diseases, Neurocritical Care, and more. He also has written numerous textbook chapters on the diagnosis and treatment of neurosurgical diseases.
Dr. Polster is not only committed to delivering the highest quality healthcare to his patients, but he is also invested in teaching and mentoring students and residents, providing guidance and instructions to help them navigate complex neurosurgery topics during their medical careers. Dr. Polster is the director of the skull base laboratory that is a joint effort with multiple surgical departments to teach and develop new surgical techniques and tools to treat diseases of the head and neck.