Gavin W. Britz, MBBCh, MPH, MBA, FAANS

Candy and Tom Knudson Distinguished Centennial Chair in Neurosurgery, Department of Neurosurgery
Professor of Neurosurgery, Academic Institute
Full Member, Research Institute
Co-director, Center for Neuroregeneration
Director, Neurological Institute
Houston Methodist
Weill Cornell Medical College


Britz Lab - Cerebrovascular Research


Phone:
713.441.3800


Biography

Dr. Gavin Britz is the Chairman of Department of Neurosurgery, the Candy and Tom Knudson Distinguished Centennial Chair in Neurosurgery, Director of the Houston Methodist Neurological Institute and Professor of Neurosurgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Britz earned his MBBCh at the University of the Witwatersrand School of Medicine, South Africa in 1987.  He completed a surgical internship in general surgery and fellowship in general surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore in 1993 and in 2002 he completed his residency in neurosurgery at the University of Washington in Seattle.  During his residency he attended St. George’s Medical School, The University of London, UK and served as a Neurosurgical Registrar and Senior Registrar.  After residency, he took a cerebrovascular fellowship in 2002 and an Interventional Neuroradiology Fellowship in 2003 at the University of Washington Medical School, Seattle.  In 2003 he earned his MPH at the University of Washington, Seattle. He also obtained an MBA from George Washington University in 2015. He held faculty appointments at the University of Washington and Duke University before becoming a member of Houston Methodist Research Institute in 2014.

Description of Research

My basic science research focuses on understanding the cerebral microcirculation. This is largely in relation to the alteration of the microcirculation following an aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. Subarachnoid hemorrhage resulting from rupture of a brain aneurysm often demonstrates significant morbidity and mortality in spite of aneurysm obliteration to prevent re-hemorrhage. In humans, delayed vascular constriction can occur 5-7 days after SAH: proximal blood vessels lose reactivity and demonstrate narrowing unresponsive to smooth muscle relaxants, often leading to delayed cerebral ischemia. However, ischemic deficits can also arise from regions with minimal vasoconstriction on angiography or transcranial Doppler studies, and drugs preventing large vessel vasoconstriction may fail to improve clinical outcome. Microvascular dysfunction and acute brain injury from SAH are also important in the evolution of ischemia. Animal models of SAH can replicate features of human SAH, particularly partial vessel rupture and release of arterial blood, ischemic and cognitive changes but demonstrate a shorter time course of vasoconstriction (maximum at 2-3 days). Hippocampus has a less robust blood supply than neocortex, with resulting lower oxygen values in vivo, in addition to a predisposition to ischemia and cell loss. My laboratory has clearly demonstrated that both the pial and penetrating arterioles are affected and therefore may account for some of the morbidity despite successful treatment of the aneurysm.

My clinical research includes evaluating new and novel tools to treat a wide variety of problems such as brain aneurysms and skull base tumors.

Areas Of Expertise

Brain Tumors Aneurysms Acoustic Neuroma AVM arteriovenous malformation Moyamoya Meningioma Carotid Endarterectomy Neuro-Vascular Surgery Pituitary Surgery Skull Based Surgery Trigeminal Neuralgia
Education & Training

MBA, George Washington University
Clinical Fellowship, University of Washington
MPH, University of Washington
Residency, University of Washington
Internship, University of the Witwatersrand
MBBCh, University of the Witwatersrand
Clinical Fellowship, Johns Hopkins University
Publications

Poor haemorrhagic stroke outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic are driven by socioeconomic disparities: Analysis of nationally representative data
Bako, AT, Potter, T, Pan, AP, Borei, KA, Prince, T, Britz, GW & Vahidy, FS 2024, , BMJ Neurology Open, vol. 6, no. 1, e000511, pp. e000511. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjno-2023-000511

Angiomatoid fibrous histiocytoma: primary intracranial lesion with thoracic spine metastasis and a malignant course. Illustrative case
Demand, A, Barber, S, Powell, S & Britz, G 2024, , Journal of Neurosurgery: Case Lessons, vol. 7, no. 1, CASE23535. https://doi.org/10.3171/CASE23535

Acute Bitemporal Hemianopsia Following Transsphenoidal Pituitary Adenoma Resection With Fat Graft
Livingston, CA, Raviskanthan, S, Mortensen, PW, Britz, GW, Lee, AG, Avery, R, Golnik, KC, Froment, C & Wang, AG 2023, , Journal of Neuro-Ophthalmology, vol. 43, no. 4, pp. E214-E216. https://doi.org/10.1097/WNO.0000000000001499

Surgical corridor formation by minimally invasive lateral occipital infracortical supra-/transtentorial (OICST) approach in pineal region tumor surgery: A review of 11 cases
Staribacher, D, Kuzmin, D, Britz, G & Feigl, GC 2024, , Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery, vol. 236, 108073, pp. 108073. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clineuro.2023.108073

Fully endoscopic posterior fossa decompression for Chiari malformation type I: illustrative case
Staribacher, D, Feigl, GC, Britz, G & Kuzmin, D 2023, , Journal of Neurosurgery: Case Lessons, vol. 6, no. 17, CASE23216. https://doi.org/10.3171/CASE23216

Minimally Invasive Surgery With Thrombolysis for Intracerebral Hemorrhage Evacuation: Bayesian Reanalysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial
Potter, T, Bako, AT, Pan, AP, Tannous, J, Britz, G, Ziai, WC, Awad, I, Hanley, D & Vahidy, FS 2023, , Neurology, vol. 101, no. 16, pp. E1614-E1622. https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000207735

lncRNA Sequencing Reveals Neurodegeneration-Associated FUS Mutations Alter Transcriptional Landscape of iPS Cells That Persists in Motor Neurons
Provasek, VE, Kodavati, M, Guo, W, Wang, H, Boldogh, I, Van Den Bosch, L, Britz, G & Hegde, ML 2023, , Cells, vol. 12, no. 20, 2461. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells12202461

Minimally Invasive Dorsal Approach for the Treatment of Giant Presacral Schwannomas
Feigl, GC, Britz, G, Staribacher, D & Kuzmin, D 2023, , Operative Neurosurgery, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. E66-E70. https://doi.org/10.1227/ons.0000000000000708

A Neuro-Informatics Pipeline for Cerebrovascular Disease: Research Registry Development
Potter, TBH, Pratap, S, Nicolas, JC, Khan, OS, Pan, AP, Bako, AT, Hsu, E, Johnson, C, Jefferson, IN, Adegbindin, SK, Baig, E, Kelly, HR, Jones, SL, Britz, GW, Tannous, J & Vahidy, FS 2023, , JMIR Formative Research, vol. 7, e40639, pp. e40639. https://doi.org/10.2196/40639

Geographic Disparities in Case Fatality and Discharge Disposition Among Patients With Primary Intracerebral Hemorrhage
Bako, AT, Potter, T, Pan, A, Tannous, J, Rahman, O, Langefeld, C, Woo, D, Britz, G & Vahidy, FS 2023, , Journal of the American Heart Association, vol. 12, no. 10, e027403. https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.122.027403

Discovering spontaneous intracranial hypotension after failed middle meningeal artery embolization for subdural hematomas: illustrative cases
Bhenderu, LS, Wong, M & Britz, G 2023, , Journal of Neurosurgery: Case Lessons, vol. 5, no. 6, CASE22445. https://doi.org/10.3171/CASE22445

The Minimally Invasive Lateral Occipital Infracortical Supra-/Transtentorial Approach in Surgery of Lesions of the Pineal Region: A Possible Alternative to the Standard Approaches
Feigl, GC, Britz, G, Staribacher, D & Kuzmin, D 2023, , World neurosurgery, vol. 172, pp. e151-e164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2022.12.121

Stroke severity mediates the effect of socioeconomic disadvantage on poor outcomes among patients with intracerebral hemorrhage
Potter, TBH, Tannous, J, Pan, AP, Bako, A, Johnson, C, Baig, E, Kelly, H, McCane, CD, Garg, T, Gadhia, R, Misra, V, Volpi, J, Britz, G, Chiu, D & Vahidy, FS 2023, , Frontiers in Neurology, vol. 14, 1176924, pp. 1176924. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2023.1176924

Automated catheter segmentation and tip detection in cerebral angiography with topology-aware geometric deep learning
Ghosh, R, Wong, K, Zhang, YJ, Britz, GW & Wong, STC 2023, , Journal of neurointerventional surgery, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 290-295. https://doi.org/10.1136/jnis-2023-020300

Seasonal variation in the incidence of primary intracerebral hemorrhage: a 16-year nationwide analysis
Baig, E, Tannous, J, Potter, T, Pan, A, Prince, T, Britz, G, Vahidy, FS & Bako, AT 2023, , Frontiers in Neurology, vol. 14, 1179317, pp. 1179317. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2023.1179317

Leptomeningeal metastasis from neuroendocrine carcinoma of the cervix: illustrative case
Patterson, JD, Farach, AM, Singh, M, Britz, GW & Rostomily, RC 2023, , Journal of Neurosurgery: Case Lessons, vol. 5, no. 5, CASE22457. https://doi.org/10.3171/CASE22457

Primary thoracic intramedullary spinal cord tumor with likely metastases of glial origin to the lumbosacral vertebrae: Illustrative case
Asante, SK, Lee, JJ, Jenson, AV, Bhenderu, LS, Patterson, JD, Rivera, A & Britz, GW 2023, , Surgical Neurology International, vol. 14, A44, pp. 333. https://doi.org/10.25259/SNI_231_2023

Fractured Lumbar Drain Catheter Retrieval Using an Endoscopic Transforaminal Approach to the Lumbar Spine
Sulhan, S, Sadrameli, SS, Barber, S, Holman, P, Britz, G & Huang, M 2022, , Operative Neurosurgery, vol. 23, no. 5, pp. E331-E334. https://doi.org/10.1227/ons.0000000000000378

Systems and methods for improving cerebrospinal fluid (csf) drainage
Golanov, EV, Britz, GW, Regnier-Golanov, A, Karmonik, C & Eskuri, A Oct. 27 2022, , Patent No. WO2022226155A1.

SARS-CoV-2 and the central nervous system: Emerging insights into hemorrhage-associated neurological consequences and therapeutic considerations
Mitra, J, Kodavati, M, Provasek, VE, Rao, KS, Mitra, S, Hamilton, DJ, Horner, PJ, Vahidy, FS, Britz, GW, Kent, TA & Hegde, ML 2022, , Ageing Research Reviews, vol. 80, 101687. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2022.101687