Spine & Spinal Cord Surgery

Dr. Steege grew up in Palo Alto, CA graduating from Stanford University School of Medicine in 1979.  Upon graduation from the Neurological Surgery Residency Program at the University of Washington in 1986, he performed military service in Germany for 2 years followed by a fellowship in pediatric neurosurgery at the University of Utah. After a year at the former Group Health Cooperative, Dr. Steege moved to Swedish Medical Center where he practiced pediatric and adult neurosurgery for 31 years. He joined the faculty at UW in August, 2020.

After my fellowship training, I spent 9 years in private practice.  The practice was approximately 75% spine and 25% cranial neurosurgery.

Dr. Lazar is a board certified neurosurgeon who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of complex spinal disorders, minimally invasive spine surgery, neuro-oncology, Gamma Knife radiosurgery and skull-base surgery. He evaluates and treats his patients as individuals, employing state-of-the-art diagnostic and surgical techniques to provide the best outcome possible. He strives to be available for his patients to support them and their families through the challenges of neurological diseases.

Dr. Houston, a board certified neurosurgeon, uses state-of-the-art technology to surgically correct a patient’s problem when the patient has not responded to non-surgical care, such as physical therapy and epidural steroid injections. He has performed over 4,000 spine surgeries to correct common conditions, such as cervical, thoracic and lumbar herniated discs, stenosis, spondylolisthesis, fracture, low back pain and sciatica.

Dr. Jason S. Hauptman is an associate professor of neurological surgery and a board-certified pediatric neurosurgeon. He is a staff neurosurgeon at both Seattle Childrens Hospital and Harborview Medical Center. He dedicates a significant portion of his clinical practice to the surgical management of epilepsy, both in children (Seattle Children’s Hospital) and adults (Harborview Medical Center).

Dr. Zhang completed his residency training in neurological surgery at the UW. He also completed a joint orthopedic and neurosurgery spine fellowship at the UW before becoming a faculty member in neurosurgery at the University of Texas in Houston in 2006. He returned to Seattle and joined the faculty in 2009. 

Dr. Saigal is an Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery at UW. In addition to general neurosurgery, he specializes in complex spine surgery, including spinal deformity, spinal tumors, minimally invasive techniques, spinal cord injury, and neurotrauma. 

Christoph Hofstetter, M.D., Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Washington. He is a neurosurgeon specializing in complex spine surgery with an emphasis on minimally invasive techniques. His primary clinical focus is on the surgical treatment of degenerative spinal disorders, including disc herniation, lumbar spondylolisthesis and cervical myelopathy, as well as, spinal oncology. 

Dr. Gelfenbeyn is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery and Chief of Neurosurgery at Seattle VAMC.

He was born and grew up in Moscow, USSR. After graduating from the medical school he worked for 20 years at the Moscow Sklifosovsky Emergency Care Institute where he was a Chief of Neurosurgery Department for the last five years. Dr. Gelfenbeyn immigrated to the US at the end of 2000 and redid his residency. He currently works at the Seattle VAMC.

Dr. Chesnut, based at Harborview Medical Center, is a UW professor with appointments in two departments: Neurological Surgery, and Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine. He has particular expertise in surgery and critical care for traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injuries, failed back surgery, and adult spondylolisthesis, as well as sports-related spine and brain injuries.