Good afternoon, everyone. It's my, indeed, honor to introduce the 2018 Charles Tatter lecturer, Ed Benzel. We both work together at the Cleveland Clinic. We've been together for quite some time, so it is truly my honor to be able to do this. And they gave me a monumentally difficult task, which is to do this in one minute. So I won't be able to do this in a minute, so maybe a minute and a half, but we'll see if we can get through it. So Ed was born in Washington State and was raised there. He went on to go to college in Washington, receiving a degree in chemical engineering. Following that, he moved on to across the country to Milwaukee. Ed graduated medical school at the Medical College of Wisconsin in 1975. He then went on to be accepted and completed his residency under the tutelage of Sanford Larson. He also completed a fellowship after his residency with Sanford Larson, 1980 and 1981, in both spine surgery and spinal cord injury treatment. And I think if we look at that, he was probably the first neurosurgery spine fellow. So he has that going behind them with Larson. He met the love of his life, Mary Benzel, in 1977, and they were married in that year. We'll hear a little bit about Ed's history as he gives us his perspective over this time, so I'm going to not go into great detail here. But he started out in Shreveport, Louisiana, doing neurosurgery. And when you talk to him and what he did during that time, he did a little bit of everything, anything from shunts to ECIC bypass. But what he did a significant amount of was trauma, spinal trauma and cranial trauma. And he published extensively during that time. If you go back and look at some of those early publications, there were a number of them on the treatment and the outcome of decompression of the spine and the care of spinal cord injury. He also, at the time, had the largest series on civilian gunshot wounds to the spinal cord in Cota Cuena, which was published during that time. He moved on from Shreveport to New Mexico, to Albuquerque, and that's where I met him. He was there from 1989 to 1999. He continued his seminal work there, training residents, fellows, continuing his numerous publications in spinal trauma, spinal cord injury. But probably one of his most important works and what he's known well for and probably what all of us in the room know for is his study of the biomechanics of the spine and the publications and also teaching all of us in the room spinal biomechanics. It was no longer just putting somebody in a brace or putting somebody in a cast or simply putting a hook or a rod or a screw in the spine. It was truly understanding how the spine moved biomechanically, what happened during a fracture or during injury, and what sort of implant or construct we would need to apply the appropriate forces to able to stabilize that spine afterwards. We learned how to do this more appropriately, more effectively, and safer for patients through Dr. Benzel's work. He moved on from New Mexico, from Albuquerque, to the Cleveland Clinic in 1999, and he's currently still at the Cleveland Clinic. He's held numerous positions there. He's worn numerous hats. He was the first Spine Institute Chairman at the Cleveland Clinic, which then became a center. So he was the Spine Center Director following that. He was then named the Department of Neurosurgery Chairman, where he was until approximately a year ago, where he's now the Emeritus Chairman at the Cleveland Clinic. He has a wonderful legacy behind him. I am one of his trainees. There's other trainees in the room. He's trained 69 neurosurgical residents between New Mexico and the Cleveland Clinic, 114 surgical fellows, 47 medical spine fellows, 20 postgraduate spine research fellows, and just way too many medical students to even count who he's mentoring currently and mentored in the past. And like I said, there's current residents in the room. There's past fellows in the room. So his legacy is very strong with us in neurosurgery and spinal surgery. His publication list is extensive, with over 385 peer-reviewed articles, numerous textbooks, book chapters, and invited comments, lectures, and reviews. He's written some of the seminal works in spinal surgery and biomechanics, including his Biomechanics of Spine Stabilization, which is in multiple editions now, and his two-volume Spine Surgery textbook, which is, and for a little selfish plug for myself, I'm now the co-editor with him on this work. He's an inventor. Many, many of the spinal implants we've used today have come from the work and from his mind. He's an educator, not only a resident, but also in a world-class annual course where we learn a lot but also have just a great time, network, and make lifelong friends. And, of course, coming from Louisiana, we eat a lot of crawfish during that course. He's a wonderful husband, father, and now grandfather. So I'm honored to introduce the 2018 Charles Tatter Lecturer, someone I consider one of my good friends, my mentor, Ed Benzel. Thank you.

Ed Benzel

Charles Tatter lecturer

Cleveland Clinic

spine surgery

spinal cord injury treatment