David Darrow, MD, MPH

Dr. David Darrow is an award-winning neurosurgeon/researcher who joined the department as an Assistant Professor after completing his residency at the University of Minnesota. He earned his MD and MPH (Master’s in Public Health) from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston; and a BS in physics and mathematics from Texas A&M University in College Station. As a clinician, Dr. Darrow treats patients with pain (trigeminal neuralgia, facial pain, chronic pain), movement disorders (Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, dystonia), neuropsychiatric disease, and epilepsy. Thanks to support from MnDRIVE (Minnesota’s Discovery, Research, and InnoVation Economy) and the Institute of Translational Neuroscience, most of Dr. Darrow’s time will be devoted to research and continuing the work he is doing with in the Herman Darrow Lab with Dr. Alex Herman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. “Alex and I are focused on the main systems of the brain – reward, cognitive, and mood,” he said. “We want to know how all these systems affect one another to better understand how we can treat chronic pain, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and addiction.”

• David Piepgras Award, 2019
• AANS Third Top Stereotactic and Functional Poster, 2019
• AANS Philip L. Gildenberg MD Resident Award, 2018
• MNNS Best Basic Science Oral Presentation, 2017
• AANS/CNS Neurotrauma and Critical Care Research Award, 2016
• AANS Top Poster in Ethics, 2015
• Galveston Daily News Everyday Hero Award, 2012
• Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, 2011

University of Minnesota

• First Place, 2019 Surgery and Neurosurgery Research Day
• Minneapolis VA Health Good Catch Award, 2018
• UMN Neurosurgery Top Presentation, 2018
• MNDrive Neuromodulation Fellow, 2016

• Alpha Omega Alpha
• American Association of Neurological Surgeons
• American Medical Association
• American Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery
• Congress of Neurological Surgeons
• Society for Neuroscience

Dr. Darrow's research in epilepsy and neuroscience started in Austin, TX, where he began applying his background in analysis on cognitive research in patients undergoing surgery for seizures.

Publications (most recent)

1. Peña-Pino, I., Hoover, C., Venkatesh, S., Ahmadi, A., Sturtevant, D., Patrick, N., Freeman, D., Parr, A., Samadani, U., Balser, D., Krassioukov, A., Phillips, A., Netoff, T., & Darrow, D. (2020). Long-term spinal cord stimulation after chronic complete spinal cord injury enables volitional movement in the absence of stimulation. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 14, 35.
2. Soriano, J. E., Saleem, S., Netoff, T. I., Squair, J. W., Samadani, U., Krassioukov, A. V., Darrow, D.*, & Phillips, A. A. (2020). Epidural electrical stimulation and hemodynamic control after spinal cord injury. FASEB Journal: Official Publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, 34(S1), 1–1.
3. Niederer, J., Patriat, R., Rosenberg, O., Palnitkar, T., Darrow, D., Park, M. C., Schrock, L., Eberly, L. E., & Harel, N. (2020). Factors Influencing Electrode Position and Bending of the Proximal Lead in Deep Brain Stimulation for Movement Disorders. Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, 1–13.
4. Darrow, D. P., Spano, A., & Grande, A. (2020). The Potential for Undue Patient Exposure during the Use of Telementoring Technology. Cureus, 12(4), e7594.
5. Darrow, D., Lee-Norris, A., Larson, A., Samadani, U., & Netoff, T. I. (2019). Discrepancy between internal and external intracranial pressure transducers: quantification of an old source of error in EVDs? World Neurosurgery.
6. Darrow, D. P., O’Brien, P., Richner, T. J., Netoff, T. I., & Ebbini, E. S. (2019). Reversible neuroinhibition by focused ultrasound is mediated by a thermal mechanism. Brain Stimulation.
7. Darrow, D., Balser, D., Netoff, T. I., Krassioukov, A., Phillips, A., Parr, A., & Samadani, U. (2019). Epidural Spinal Cord Stimulation Facilitates Immediate Restoration of Dormant Motor and Autonomic Supraspinal Pathways after Chronic Neurologically Complete Spinal Cord Injury. Journal of Neurotrauma.
8. Darrow, D. P. (2019). Focused Ultrasound for Neuromodulation. Neurotherapeutics: The Journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics, 16(1), 88–99.
9. Darrow, David P., Coridon Quinn, Truong H. Do, Matthew Hunt, and Stephen Haines. 2018. Creation of an External Ventricular Drain Registry from a Quality Improvement Project. World Neurosurgery 114 (June). Elsevier: 84–89.
10. Ladd, Bryan M., Ryan D. Tackla, Akshay Gupte, David Darrow, Jeffery Sorenson, Mario Zuccarello, and Andrew W. Grande. 2017. Feasibility of Telementoring for Microneurosurgical Procedures Using a Microscope: A Proof-of-Concept Study. World Neurosurgery 99 (March). worldneurosurgery.org: 680–86.