Maxwell Boakye, MD, MPH, MBA, FACS, FAANS

Professor of Neurosurgery, Ole A., Mabel Wise & Wilma Wise Nelson Endowed Chair, Chief of Spinal Neurosurgery, Director: Spine Fellowship, Clinical Director: Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Center

Department of Neurological Surgery

225 Abraham Flexner Way • 502-588-2160 •

Make an appointment with Dr. Boakye

Dr. Boakye specializes in general neurosurgery and complex spinal neurosurgery, spinal radiosurgery, and minimally invasive spinal surgery, including endoscopic lumbar discectomies. He runs the Department of Neurosurgery outcomes research program and spinal cord research lab, including the porcine spinal cord injury research program. Dr. Boakye is the lead neurosurgeon for the epidural stimulation research program with many ongoing projects. These projects include investigations of the physiology and plasticity of the sensorimotor systems following neuromodulatory interventions for spinal cord injury using noninvasive multimodal methodologies, which include functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), electroencephalography (EEG), somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP), and peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) technologies. Projects in the porcine spinal cord injury research program are currently focused on understanding the role of myelotomy as a novel treatment paradigm in improving functional outcomes after acute spinal cord injury. Dr. Boakye is the Principal Site Investigator for several clinical trials studying acute spinal cord injury. He directs the Department of Neurosurgery's participation in the North American Clinical Trials Network for spinal cord injury and the University of Louisville's participation in the American Association of Neurological Surgeons quality outcomes database of spine and brain surgery outcomes.

Dr. Boakye supervises a number of outcomes research projects, including investigations of quality of life after spine surgery, opioid utilization and dependency after spine surgery, health economics and cost-effectiveness of spine surgery, bundled payment systems for spine surgery, and predictive analytics of spine and brain surgery outcomes. He is one of a handful of neurosurgeons in the Louisville area performing endoscopic discectomy, which is the least invasive microdiscectomy for lumbar disc herniation.

Learn more about Dr. Boakye's work here.

Research Interests and Publications: