Shayan Moosa, MD

Shayan Moosa, MD, is a neurosurgeon at UVA Health who specializes in stereotactic and functional neurosurgery and minimally invasive treatment of brain tumors.

He cares for people with:

• Movement disorders
• Epilepsy
• Chronic pain
• Spasticity
• Brain tumors
• Peripheral nerve conditions

Dr. Moosa approaches each patient’s care with the attention he would want for a member of his own family. He takes time to understand how a condition affects daily life, explain treatment options, and discuss potential benefits and risks. His goal is to recommend the least invasive approach that is appropriate for each patient’s condition and goals.

He uses frame-based and robot-assisted techniques for stereotactic surgery, supported by advanced imaging, artificial intelligence (AI)-based targeting, and tractography to map brain pathways and guide treatment planning.

For movement disorders, he offers deep brain stimulation (DBS), incision-free MRI-guided focused ultrasound, and radiofrequency (RF) ablation for tremor.

His epilepsy practice includes stereo-EEG to identify where seizures begin, surgery to remove or disconnect seizure-producing areas, and implanted devices, including DBS, responsive neurostimulation (RNS), and vagus nerve stimulation (VNS).

He also performs brain tumor surgery and MRI-guided laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT), also called laser ablation, for selected brain tumors and epilepsy.

Dr. Moosa’s pain practice includes microvascular decompression and rhizotomy for trigeminal neuralgia, occipital nerve decompression, dorsal root ganglionectomy, and neurectomy. He offers spinal cord, peripheral nerve, and motor cortex stimulation, including peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) for facial pain and occipital neuralgia. Other options include implanted medication pumps for pain or spasticity and procedures that interrupt specific pain pathways for severe, treatment-resistant pain.

His peripheral nerve practice includes nerve decompression, repair and transfers, brachial plexus surgery, and removal of nerve tumors and painful neuromas. He also performs diagnostic nerve and muscle biopsies.

Dr. Moosa’s research explores focused ultrasound for neuromodulation (changing activity in brain circuits), blood-brain barrier opening, drug delivery, and sonodynamic therapy for cancer (which combines ultrasound with a medication to investigate a new way of targeting tumor cells).

He leads clinical trials of sonodynamic therapy for recurrent glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer that has returned, and low-intensity focused ultrasound for essential tremor. He also investigates how AI-assisted targeting can improve the precision of deep brain stimulation and focused ultrasound treatments for movement disorders. In addition, he serves as an investigator in a clinical trial of neuronal cell therapy for drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy and has performed stereotactic procedures to deliver this investigational treatment.

Dr. Moosa earned his undergraduate degree in neuroscience and his medical degree at UVA, where he also completed his neurosurgical residency. He pursued specialized training in stereotactic and functional neurosurgery with Jeff Elias, MD, at UVA and spent a year training at Auckland City Hospital in New Zealand.

He is the outpatient medical director, neurosurgery clerkship director, associate residency program director, and associate director of the Stereotactic & Functional Fellowship in the Department of Neurosurgery.

Dr. Moosa is the author or coauthor of more than 60 scientific publications and book chapters. His honors include the Early Career Clinical Investigator Award from the International Society for Therapeutic Ultrasound (2026), the Faculty Mentorship and Teaching Award from the UVA Department of Neurosurgery (2026), and the Excellence in Patient Experience Award (2024 and 2025).