Joe Watson, MD, is an NIH fellowship trained pituitary surgeon with 20 years experience in brain protection research and has headed brain protection laboratories at the NIH and University of California, Davis.
He has published more than 30 articles in the areas of pituitary surgery, cerebrovascular disease, spinal disorders, and neuromonitoring, is a national and international speaker on these subjects and participates in annual medical missions to Guatemala.
In addition, he is the founder and President of the Pituitary Adenoma Research Foundation.
At Inova Fairfax Hospital, Dr. Watson is the Medical Director of the Inova Regional Neurosurgery service and holds a teaching appointment with the VCU Inova Medical Campus.
Specialties
Pituitary Tumors While at the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Watson studied pituitary disorders, especially acromegaly and Cushing’s disease. He specializes in the removal of pituitary adenomas using a technique that spares the normal pituitary gland. Dr. Watson has a laboratory that studies the genetics and behavior of these tumors and has created a non-profit organization, the Pituitary Adenoma Research Foundation (PARF) that supports pituitary research.
Spinal surgery Dr. Watson specializes in minimally invasive spinal surgery techniques that allow patients to return to home sooner with less pain. These include endoscopic spinal fusion and muscle dilating minimally invasive discectomy techniques. Dr. Watson completed a spinal surgery proctorship with Dr. Maurice Smith in Memphis, TN, the co-inventor of the minimally invasive spinal discectomy system.
Dr. Watson is a recognized expert in neurosurgery for these techniques and is the author on the chapters for minimally invasive spinal surgery in the premier textbook in neurosurgery, “Spine Surgery”. Furthermore Dr. Watson has published on the evaluation of cervical myelopathy, and spinal dural AV fistulas, and he was the first surgeon in the Bronx, NY, to perform the lumbar artificial disc replacement.
Peripheral nerveSpecialists at Inova Fairfax Hospital bring expertise to the surgical treatment of nerve lacerations, carpal tunnel syndrome, ulnar neuropathy, meralgia paresthetica, suprascapular nerve entrapment, occipital neuralgia, brachial plexus injury, and nerve sheath tumors (Schwannomas and neurofibromas).
General Neurosurgery Inova Fairfax Hospital supports a full complement of neurosurgical services including cerebrovascular surgery, trigeminal neuralgia, hemifacial spasm, neurotrauma, neurooncology, von Hippel-Lindau disease, and stereotactic surgery. Dr. Watson is a trained “brain bypass” EC-IC surgeon. Functional neurosurgery and epilepsy surgery are done in collaboration with surgeons from George Washington University Hospital’s Department of Neurosurgery.