Dr. Yoav Carmel

Dr. Yoav Carmel is a distinguished professor and neurosurgeon at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem — one of Israel's most storied academic hospitals and a world-class center for complex neurosurgical care. Over 28 years of practice, Dr. Carmel has developed exceptional expertise in spinal surgery and spinal cord injury management, positions that place him among the most sought-after neurosurgical consultants in Israel and the broader Middle East.

Hadassah's neurosurgery department manages an extraordinarily diverse case mix, including trauma, pediatric cases, complex tumors, and degenerative disease from Jerusalem's complex multicultural patient population. Dr. Carmel's spinal surgery practice encompasses the full complexity spectrum: from routine lumbar microdiscectomy through cervical deformity correction, posterior fossa surgery, and intradural spinal tumor resection.

His work in spinal cord injury has a significant translational research dimension. Dr. Carmel has been involved in studies of electrostimulation approaches to spinal cord injury recovery and has published foundational work on epidural electrical stimulation as a potential rehabilitation tool. This research, conducted in collaboration with colleagues in neuroscience and rehabilitation medicine, reflects Hadassah's commitment to bench-to-bedside neuroscience.

Dr. Carmel also manages patients with primary and metastatic spinal tumors, coordinating with radiation oncologists and medical oncologists for multimodal treatment. He is fluent in Hebrew and English and has considerable experience with international patients who travel to Hadassah for neurosurgical second opinions and complex procedures.

Dr. Carmel obtained his MD from the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, and completed his Neurosurgery residency at Hadassah Medical Center. He received a PhD in Neuroscience from Hebrew University, with his doctoral thesis focusing on recovery mechanisms following spinal cord injury. He completed a Spinal Neurosurgery Fellowship at the University of Toronto in Canada, with advanced training at Toronto Western Hospital — one of North America's leading spinal surgery centers. He is a Fellow of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (FAANS) and holds the Israeli Medical Association board certification in Neurosurgery. He serves as Professor of Neurosurgery at Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School.

Dr. Carmel performs a comprehensive range of spinal and cranial neurosurgical procedures. His spinal surgery expertise includes anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF), cervical and lumbar decompression, spinal fusion with instrumentation, correction of adult and pediatric deformity (scoliosis, kyphosis), and resection of intradural-extramedullary and intramedullary spinal cord tumors. For cranial pathology, he performs craniotomy for supratentorial and posterior fossa tumors, acoustic neuroma surgery, and trigeminal neuralgia microvascular decompression. He also performs deep brain stimulation (DBS) programming and follow-up for movement disorder patients. He uses intraoperative neuromonitoring (MEPs, SSEPs) as standard for all high-risk spinal and skull base cases.

Dr. Carmel has published over 60 peer-reviewed papers in journals including Journal of Neurosurgery, Brain, and Nature Neuroscience on spinal cord injury electrostimulation, spinal tumor surgery outcomes, and deformity correction. His translational research on spinal cord injury recovery has received international attention and has been presented at the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons annual meeting, and the Israel Neurosurgical Society. He is a principal investigator on a multi-center trial examining epidural stimulation for spinal cord injury rehabilitation.

Hadassah Medical Center is internationally recognized for complex neurosurgical care and receives patients from Europe, the Americas, and across the Middle East and Africa for second opinions and high-complexity surgery. Dr. Carmel's expertise in spinal cord injury and complex spinal surgery is particularly sought internationally. He consults in Hebrew and English. Hadassah's international patient center provides comprehensive coordination including accommodation, visa support, and multi-specialty consultations. Video second-opinion consultations for spinal and cranial pathology are available for international patients.

Dr. Carmel is a recipient of the Israel Science Foundation grant for spinal cord injury research and the Hadassah Medical Center Neurosurgery Research Award. He was elected President of the Israel Neurosurgical Society and serves on the editorial board of the journal Spinal Cord. He is a frequently invited visiting professor at European and North American neurosurgery programs.