Darweesh Al-Khawaja1, Jin Ye Yeo2
1Nepean Hospital and Norwest Private Hospital, Sydney, Australia; 2JSS Editorial Office, AME Publishing Company
Correspondence to: Jin Ye Yeo. JSS Editorial Office, AME Publishing Company. Email: jss@amegroups.com
This interview can be cited as: Al-Khawaja D, Yeo JY. Meeting the Editorial Board Member of JSS: Dr. Darweesh Al-Khawaja. J Spine Surg. 2025. Available from: https://jss.amegroups.org/post/category/interviews-with-editorial-board-members.
Expert introduction
Dr. Darweesh Al-Khawaja (Figure 1) conducted his Neurosurgical training in Australia and overseas where he passed the Australian fellowship exam in 2007. He then completed multiple spinal courses in Europe, skull base training in the United States, and a spine scholarship at St Vincent’s Hospital. Dr. Al-Khawaja has carried out numerous cranial and spinal surgeries, including skull base surgery, cerebellopontine angle (CPA) tumors and endoscopic surgery, transsphenoidal hypophysectomy, and brain tumors. He has carried out lumbar spine surgeries and fixation.
He is a member of the Royal Australian College of Surgeons, the American Association of Neurological Surgery, and a member of the Neurosurgical Society of Australia.
Figure 1 Dr. Darweesh Al-Khawaja
Interview
JSS: What motivated you to specialize in neurosurgery? How did your training in Australia and overseas shaped your approach to the field?
Dr. Al-Khawaja: The idea of neurosurgery came to my mind when I was a medical student. I did lots of courses in surgery and I love seeing patients’ outcomes when they come in a lot of pain and they leave pain-free in all specialties. I love the general challenges in surgery, so my first passion was doing surgery. In Year 5 of medical school, I had lots of tutoring, sessions, and clinical cases with a very intelligent neurologist who was great in localization. I loved this field of neurology as well so I thought I could join them together in neurosurgery. This was when I made the decision to do neurosurgery and I have never seen myself being anything else other than a neurosurgeon. I did my training overseas and in Australia. I focused a lot during my training because I have a lot of passion in this field. When I worked with neurosurgeons, I learned a lot and started practicing hands-on early because the surgeons trusted me during my training, and this increased my joy and love for this field. When I came to Australia, I was lucky to work with some specialized surgeons who possessed fine skills which helped me a lot in improving my technical skills and understanding of applied anatomy for the neurosurgical cases.
JSS: You have performed a wide range of complex surgeries, such as skull-based surgery and lumbar spine fixation. Which procedure has been the most challenging and what did you learn from it?
Dr. Al-Khawaja: There were lots of challenging procedures I encountered, but the one that came to my mind was the removal of a very large skull-based tumor in a young lady. Almost one-quarter of her brain was removed, and it took me 19 hours. She recovered well after the procedure. There was another challenging case in which a young man came to me with metastatic renal cell carcinoma in his spine. This kind of tumor is resistant to radiation and chemotherapy, and his survival rate was very poor, so we decided to go with en bloc resection despite the high risk. The operation went very well and took me about 12 hours. To date, he is still doing well. I thoroughly enjoyed the anterior and posterior approach of the procedure.
JSS: What current research or surgical innovations are you most excited about and how do you see them impacting the future of neurosurgery?
Dr. Al-Khawaja: What always comes to my mind is the natural history of disc injury and adjacent segment. When the patient has a disc injury, it may be important to observe the natural history of his pathology for the adjacent segment because some patients present with more than one level of injury and I do not think that they have all those levels at the same time. I believe that patients will have adjacent segment pathology even without surgical interventions, and if this is true, it may be wise to operate early on the damaged disc instead of waiting till the top levels get damaged, which reduces the success rate.
JSS: Given your experience in both cranial and spinal surgeries, are there any emerging trends or technologies that you believe will revolutionize these areas?
Dr. Al-Khawaja: This is a bit of a challenging question but I think that artificial intelligence is something that may add a lot to the field of cranial and spinal surgery. There is a lot of research into that now, and I think there is a big window for this to drastically improve the outcomes in cranial and spinal patients.
JSS: As a member of multiple prestigious organizations, how have these affiliations contributed to your professional development and your approach to neurosurgery?
Dr. Al-Khawaja: Honestly, I worked very hard over the years, and I was involved in many courses and talks, and I became a member of many organizations. I always believed that surgery is a small piece of the package of the field. To explain more, the technique and the surgical procedure are something many people may be able to do, but what is more important are the factors working around this to give the best outcomes, which include planning, thinking outside the box, strong communication skills, great feedbacks, respect to the staff, seniors and patients, and attention to minute details, and this is what I have learned from being a member of other organizations and running many courses in my life.
JSS: What role do you believe these organizations play in shaping the future of neurosurgery, particularly in fostering innovation and collaboration?
Dr. Al-Khawaja: I always believed that the role of organizations is so important mainly in introducing new technology to the world. Communicating and learning from people with massive experiences can make the future of neurosurgery more successful and rewarding. Teamwork is always better than solo practice so collaboration between peers and organizations can be a very important key in improving the neurosurgical techniques and outcomes.
JSS: How has your experience been as an editorial board member of the JSS?
Dr. Al-Khawaja: I am very grateful that I worked with my colleagues as an editorial member of JSS. This role helps me to keep my knowledge and reading up-to-date and allows me to learn more from other colleagues and how they think. As an editorial board member, I gathered a lot of knowledge and experience in research.
JSS: As an editorial board member, what are your expectations for JSS?
Dr. Al-Khawaja: I am a big fan of JSS. The content of the articles submitted is cutting-edge and they are very helpful and very entertaining. I see a very promising future for this journal and I expect the impact factor to improve significantly because their reviewing criteria is great without any bias.