Viswanathan Rajaraman, M.D.

Vishy (as he is known to his colleagues) received his undergraduate degree in Biology with highest honors from Loyola College, Madras, India. He earned his medical doctorate from the University of Madras, India, with multiple prizes and awards of distinction. After completing 5 years of residency training (leading to an M.Ch. in neurosurgery) and a short period of private practice in Madras, he moved to the UK. Practicing neurosurgery at various levels in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Aberdeen and Edinburgh he was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1991. He obtained the Intercollegiate Board Certification in Surgical Neurology of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons in the UK in 1992.

Dr Rajaraman came to the US in 1994 for a fellowship in the surgical and non-surgical treatment of complex spinal disorders and research at the Christ Hospital and Mayfield Neurological Institute, Cincinnati, Ohio. After deciding to permanently relocate to the US, Vishy completed residency requirements as Chief Resident at North Carolina Baptist Hospital and Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC and at University Hospital, UMDNJ, Newark, NJ. He then obtained a fellowship in surgical Neurooncology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

Dr Rajaraman specializes in the management of benign and malignant tumors of the brain, spinal cord and the vertebral column, stereotactic radiosurgery, trigeminal neuralgia, out patient surgeries for cervical and lumbar disc herniation and peripheral nerve surgery. He established and developed the Neurooncology programs at Hackensack University Medical Center and Valley Hospital, NJ. He introduced routine use of intra-operative speech, cortical and sub-cortical motor mapping, and awake craniotomy. He also initiated brachytherapy for malignant brain tumors using the Gliasite Radiation Therapy System. He is the Principal Investigator for the Celldex Vaccine trial in the management of patients with Glioblastoma.

He is Chief of division of Neurooncology at the Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center and heads Neurooncology at Valley Hospital, Ridgewood, NJ. He is also the Associate Director of the Department of Neuroscience at Valley Hospital and a member of the Cancer committee and the advisory panel for the Valley Foundation.

In addition to teaching nurses and residents, he organizes the highly successful Annual Neurooncology symposium, for the physicians & nurses in the community. He is a clinical Assistant Professor at UMDNJ, Newark, NJ. 

A member of several county, state, national and international professional organizations and societies he was inducted as Fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 2003. He has authored more than 30 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, presented papers at national and international meetings and is actively involved in clinical research. He was awarded the Mayfield Prize for clinical research by the AANS. He has been named as a “Top Surgeon” by Consumers’ Research Council of America.

Dr Rajaraman enjoys traveling, sailing, general aviation and is involved in the education and training of neurosurgeons in the developing world.