William C. Welch, MD, FAANS, FACS, FICS, FAANOS

faculty photo
Frederick A. Simeone Professor in Neurosurgery
Chair, Department of Neurosurgery, Pennsylvania Hospital
Neurosurgery Staff, Pennsylvania Hospital Philadelphia, PA
Neurosurgery Staff, Hospital of The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA
member, Operating Room Committee Pennsylvania Hospital
member, Executive Committee Pennsylvania Hospital Philadelphia, PA
Member , Center for Bloodless Medicine, Pennsylvania Hospital
Chairman, Neurosurgery Committee on Academic Promotions (dCOAP)
Chairman , Department of Neurosurgery Pennsylvania Hospital
Co-Chair, Spine Committee, Pennsylvania Hospital
Member, Clinical Competency Committee (UPHS Department of Neurosurgery Residency Review)
staff, Neurosurgery Staff Penn Presbyterian Hospital Philadelphia,PA
member, Bioengineering Graduate Group, School of Bioengineering University of Pennsylvania
Co-Developer, Perelman School of Medicine relationship with Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt
Vice-Chair, Faculty Affairs, Department of Neurosurgery
Department: Neurosurgery
Contact information
Department of Neurosurgery
Pennsylvania Hospital
801 Spruce Street
8th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Office: 215-829-6700
Fax: 215-829-3361
Email: william.welch@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Graduate Group Affiliations
Education
B.S (BS-MD program)
The City College of New York , 1983.
 M.D.
State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, 1985.
Post-Graduate Training
Intern General Surgery, University of Rochester-Strong Memorial Hospital, Rochester, N.Y, 1985-1986.
 Resident, Neurological Surgery, University of Rochester-Strong Memorial Hospital, Rochester, N.Y., 1986-1991.
 Fellowship, Neuro-oncology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, N.Y., 1991-1992.
 Fellowship, Spinal Surgery, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Weiler Hospital, Bronx, N.Y., 1992-1993.
Certifications
American Board of Neurological Surgeons, 1995.
Permanent link
 
> Perelman School of Medicine   > Faculty   > Details

Description of Research Expertise

Tarlov Cysts
Large Language Models
Spinal stenosis
Spinal biomechanics
Spinal outcomes

Description of Clinical Expertise

All aspects of spinal surgery (over 15,000 surgeries)

Selected Publications

Santangelo G, Sollenerger C, Wathen C, Macaluso D, Dagli MM, Ghenbot Y, Gu B, Malhotra N, Ali Z, Yoon JW, Welch WC, Judy BF, Ozturk AK: Patient factors rather than surgical approach are associated with readmission and reoperation for cervical spondylotic myelopathy. Journal of Spine Surgery 4, 2026.

 Ghenbot Y, Arena JD, Dagli MM, Crabil GA, Golubovsky J, Gu B, Wathen C, Shost M, Heintz J, Casper D, Judy B, Yoon JW, Ali Z, Shin JH, Welch WC, Arlet V, Ozturk AK: The interaction of upper instrumented vertebral screw angle and tilt angle on the development of proximal junctional failure following correction of adult spinal deformity. Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine 2026 Notes: In press.

 Golobovsky JL, Rajan A, Buddhiraju K, Taori S, Dagli MM, Judy BF, Malhotra NR, Ozturk AK, Schuster JM, Shin JH, Welch WC, Zager E. Ali ZS. : Nerve transfers for C5 palsies following cervical spine surgery: a single institution experience and case series. Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine 2026 Notes: in oress.

 Sasso R, Villavicencio AT, Lavelle WF, Kim KD, Davis RJ, Fielding LC, Alamin TF, Welch WC, The LimiFlex Study Group. : Decompression and dynamic sagittal tether stabilization for degenerative spondylolisthesis: Primary outcomes of a multicenter FDA IDE trial. Spine (Philadelphia, PA 1976) 2026.

 Sasso R, Villavicencio AT, Lavelle WF, Kim KD, Davis RJ, Fielding LC, Alamin TF, Welch WC, The LimiFlex Study Group. : Decompression and dynamic sagittal tether stabilization for degenerative spondylolisthesis: Primary outcomes of a multicenter FDA IDE trial. Spine (Philadelphia, PA 1976) 2026.

 Hoglund ZT, Kathawate VG, Sollenberger CS, Wu AQ, Englander R, Rani N, Saadoun J, Massaad E, Schuster JM, Marcotte PJ, Shammassian BH, Welch WC, Casper DS, Ozturk AK, Ali ZS, Malhotra NR, Shin JS, Judy BF. : Cost-effectiveness of three-level cervical disc arthroplasty vs. anterior discectomy and fusion: a comparative single-system analysis. Journal of Spine Surgery 12, 2026.

 Dagli MM, Gujral J, Wathen C, Ghenbot Y, Arena J, Golubovsky J, Hasan A, Massaad K, Shin J, Yoon JW, Ozturk AK, Welch WC: Development and validation of a machine learning model utilizing the ACS-NSQIP database for predicting early postoperative re-operation in lumbar microdiscectomy. Brain and Spine: 26: 106108, 2026. doi: 10.1016/j.bas.2026.106108. PMID: 42292287. PMCID: 13262274. 26, 2026.

 VanHorn T, Zeitouni D, Parish J, Massr A, Welch WC, Whiting D, Kim P, Steinmetz M, Coric D. : Posterior lumbar facet arthroplasty versus fusion for the treatment of spondylolisthesis: 3 year results from the Total Posterior Spine System (TOPS) IDE Study. Neurosurgical Focus 61: E12, 2026.

 Howard SD, Pessoa R, Costello L, Silpagar M, Gardiner D, Tambe U, Rushanan S, Josi D, Nguyen J, Macaluso D, Malhotra NR, Welch WC, Ali ZS: Accuracy of RAPT score in predicting discharge disposition in patients undergoing spine surgery within an enhanced recovery after surgery program. Clinical Spine Surg March 2025.

 Wathen CA, Ghenbot Y, Arena JD, Howard S, Golubovsky JL. Ahmad HS, Massaad E, Shin J, Yoon JW, Ozturk AK, Welch WC, Dagli MM: Differences in hospital resource utilization and quality of care between anterior cervical discectomy and fusion and posterior cervical foraminotomy: a national propensity-scored observational study. Journal of Clinical Medicine. 2025.
back to top
Last updated: 07/09/2026
The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania
 
Back to Top