Ali Alaraj, MD is an attending Neurosurgeon at the University of Illinois Health and full Tenured Professor of Neurological Surgery at the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois. Dr Alaraj is dual trained in open Vascular and Endovascular Neurosurgery. He is an elected admission to Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) honor medical society, and has received Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) teaching award as a junior attending. His clinical practice includes treating patients with ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke (subarachnoid hemorrhage, intracranial bleeding, acute stroke). His medical expertise includes neurocritical care, treating patients with brain aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, complex dural arteriovenous fistulas, carotid cavernous fistulas, carotid artery and intracranial vessels stenosis. He is currently the Medical Director of the Neurosurgery Intensive Care Unit, the Co-Chair of the Comprehensive Stroke Program at University of Illinois Health and the director of the Clinical Operations at the Department of Neurosurgery at University of Illinois at Chicago.

He has more than 200 published peer reviewed articles and textbook chapters. He serves on the editorial board of Neurosurgery, Interventional Neuroradiology and Neurological Research journals and is an ad-hoc reviewer for more than 40 peer review medical journals. His research interests include outcomes of management of brain aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations; quantitative cerebral flow measures; computational quantification of intracranial flows by angiography, in addition to virtual reality simulation in neurosurgical training.

1.Elsa Nico, Jessica Hossa, Laura Stone McGuire, Ali Alaraj. Rupture-Risk Stratifying Patients with Cerebral Arteriovenous Malformations Using Quantitative Hemodynamic Flow Measurements. World Neurosurg. 2023 Aug 17:S1878-8750(23)01148-8. doi: 10.1016/j.wneu.2023.08.047.

2. John Souter, Laura Stone McGuire, Jason Choi, Denise Brunozzi, Jessica Hossa, Fady Charbel, Ali Alaraj. Quantitative Blood Flow Reduction in Selective Embolization of Intra-Nidal Fistula of Cerebral Arteriovenous Malformations: Case Series. Operative Neurosurgery. 2023 Sep 22. doi: 10.1227/ons.0000000000000876.

3. Denise Brunozzi, Laura Stone McGuire, Jessica Hossa, Gursant Atwal, Fady Charbel, Ali Alaraj. Preoperative embolization of brain arteriovenous malformation and efficacy in intraoperative blood loss reduction: a quantitative study. Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery. 2023 Jul 4:jnis-2023-020142. doi: 10.1136/jnis-2023-020142

4. Laura Stone McGuire, James S. Ryoo, Sepideh Amin-Hanjani, Gursant Atwal, Fady T. Charbel, Ali Alaraj. Assessment of Cerebral Hemodynamic Patterns in Cervical Arterial Dissection using Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Angiography. World Neurosurgery. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2022.10.089

5. Laura Stone McGuire, Mark Rizko, Denise Brunozzi, Fady Charbel, Ali Alaraj. Vessel Wall Imaging and Quantitative Flow Assessment in Arteriovenous Malformations: A Feasibility Study. Interventional Neuroradiology. 2022;0(0). doi:10.1177/15910199221143189

6. Denise Brunozzi, Laura McGuire, William Thurcan, Jessica Hossa, Fady Charbel, Matthew koshy, and Ali Alaraj. Brain arteriovenous malformation flow after stereotactic radiosurgery: role of quantitative MRA. Interventional Neuroradiology 2022 Oct 19:15910199221133174. doi: 10.1177/15910199221133174.

7. McGuire LS, Ryoo J, Amin-Hanjani S, Atwal G, Charbel FT, Alaraj A. Impact of Vessel Narrowing and Changes in Blood Flow on the Development of Cerebral Ischemia in Cervical Arterial Dissection using Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Angiography. Stroke: Vascular and Interventional Neurology. 2022. DOI: 10.1161/SVIN.122.000372

8. Brunozzi D, See A, Rizko M, Choi J, Atwal G, Alaraj A. Impact of cerebral aneurysm size on distal intracranial hemodynamics and changes following flow diversion. Interventional Neuroradiology. 2022 Jun;28(3):291-295. doi: 10.1177/15910199211032467

9. Alfred Pokmeng See, Mahmoud Mouhamaden, Mark Rizko, Christopher James Stapleton, Sepideh Amin-Hanjani, Fady T. Charbel, Victor Allyn Aletich, Ali Alaraj. Morbidity and mortality associated with sequential flow reduction embolization technique of cerebral arteriovenous malformations using n-butyl cyanoacrylate. Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery. 2021 Mar;13(3):237-241. doi: 10.1136/neurintsurg-2020-016223.

10. Mahmoud H. Mohammaden MD, Christopher J. Stapleton MD, Denise Brunozzi MD, Ahmad E. Hussein MD, Eman M. Khedr, MD, Gursant Atwal MD, Ali Alaraj MD. Predictors of poor outcome after successful mechanical thrombectomy of anterior circulation large vessel occlusions within 6 hours of symptom onset. Frontiers in Neurology. 2020 Sep 4;11:907. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2020.00907.

Co-Director, Comprehensive Stroke Program, UI Health

Medical School: American University of Beirut. Beirut, Lebanon

Medical Licensure: Illinois

American Heart Association, Stroke Counsil
American College of Surgeons,
Congress of Neurological Surgeons
Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery
Society of Vascular and Interventional Neurology
World Association of Lebanese Neurosurgeons
American Medical Association

PATENT: HAPTIC AUGMENTED AND VIRTUAL REALITY SYSTEM FOR SIMULATION OF SURGICAL PROCEDURES. Banerjee, P; Luciano, C; Alaraj, A; Charbel, F. Jie Jiang . US 10,108,266 B2. Date: Oct 23, 2018

Ali Alaraj, editor. Textbook: “Comprehensive Healthcare Simulation: Neurosurgery”. Springer publisher. 2018