Neena Ishwari Marupudi, MD

Dr. Neena Marupudi attended Johns Hopkins University for her undergraduate studies, graduating with honors in Neuroscience and Anthropology. She also completed a master’s degree in Neuroscience at Hopkins, followed by a medical degree from the Pennsylvania State School of Medicine and residency training in Neurosurgery at Wayne State University/Detroit Medical Center. After completing a pediatric neurosurgery fellowship at Seattle Children’s Hospital/University of Washington, she returned to Detroit to practice as a part of the Pediatric Neurosurgery Group at the Children's Hospital of Michigan (CHM) and join the faculty at Wayne State University. Dr. Marupudi also completed a Master of Science in Clinical Research Design and Statistical Analysis at the University of Michigan, applying those skills to her research in pediatric spasticity, hydrocephalus, epilepsy, craniosynostosis, and brain tumors.

Dr. Marupudi is a skilled and accomplished surgeon, administrator, researcher, and educator. At CHM, she established and directed the Surgical Spasticity Program, a multidisciplinary team of physicians, therapists, and social workers to evaluate and care for children who may benefit from selective dorsal rhizotomies (SDRs) and baclofen pumps. Dr. Marupudi refined the selective dorsal rhizotomy technique to make it even more minimally invasive, and streamlined the processes for evaluation, surgery, and rehabilitation for children in the Detroit Metropolitan area. Her research on outcomes with SDR has been presented at several national conferences.

Dr. Marupudi also was appointed Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery at CHM at the start of 2022 and the President of the Pediatric Neurosurgery Group. She successfully recruited additional pediatric neurosurgeons to expand the group and led the successful transition of the pediatric neurosurgery advanced practice provider team to employment by the Pediatric Neurosurgery Group. As an educator, Dr. Marupudi has been a strong role model and advocate for women in Neurosurgery and has published manuscripts to illuminate challenges and opportunities to improve gender equity in Neurosurgery.

Dr. Marupudi is passionate about neurosurgical innovations that minimize surgical impact while optimizing clinical outcomes. She has continued to build on the work of her predecessors in endoscopic epilepsy surgery, performing endoscopic corpus callosotomies and hemispherotomies. She also built from the ground up a laser ablation program for pediatric brain tumors and pediatric epilepsy in Detroit, performing the first complete laser corpus callosotomy in the Metro Detroit area. She is passionate about finding innovative, personalized solutions for each of her patients.

At Michigan Medicine, Dr. Marupudi will serve as the Director of Pediatric Spasticity and will expand clinical and research programs in neuromodulation and the surgical treatment of spasticity and movement disorders. Her recruitment will catalyze the growth of the Pediatric Neurosurgery program in clinical volume, education, and research. Dr. Marupudi is a strong advocate for excellence in neurosurgical care of children in Southeast Michigan and strives to treat all children as if they were her one of her own. She is also a dedicated and loving mother of two energetic children (4.5 years and 22 months). She loves Wonder Woman comics, scuba diving, and playing with magna-tiles and Legos with her kids. She is excited to have lunch more frequently with her husband, who has worked at Michigan Medicine for over 13 years and is a pediatric neurologist.

Pediatric neurosurgery, pediatric spasticity, movement disorders, selective dorsal rhizotomies (SDRs), baclofen pumps, endoscopic epilepsy surgery, laser ablation for brain tumors and epilepsy, hydrocephalus, craniosynostosis

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