Dr. Youssef G. Comair, MD, FRCSC

Expert Publications

• Epilepsy surgery in children with pervasive developmental disorder.
• Seizure outcome after surgery for epilepsy due to malformation of cortical development.
• Spontaneous subdural haematoma in anabolic steroids dependent weight lifters: reports of two cases and review of literature.
• Pattern-induced partial seizures with repetitive affectionate kissing: an unusual manifestation of right temporal lobe epilepsy.
• Normalization of quality of life three years after temporal lobectomy: a controlled study.
• Functional recovery following resection of an epileptogenic focus in the motor hand area.
• Intracarotid propofol testing: a comparative study with amobarbital.
• Quality of life after vagal nerve stimulator insertion.
• Surgical outcome for focal cortical dysplasia: an analysis of recent surgical series.
• Sub-second dopamine detection in human striatum.
• Epilepsy surgery in a developing country (Lebanon): ten years experience and
• A biological approach to treating brain arteriovenous malformations.
• Pharmacological action of FPL 55712 on canine cerebral arterial segments.
• Effects of naloxone during high dose barbiturate anesthesia.
• Cortical architectural abnormalities and MIB1 immunoreactivity in gangliogliomas: a study of 60 patients with intracranial tumors.

Media Releases

Get to know Neurosurgeon Dr. Youssef G. Comair, who serves patients in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Dr. Comair is an internationally recognized authority in neurosurgery for his pioneering work in pediatric epilepsy surgery and brain tumors. He currently serves as a full-time physician at American Hospital Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

A premier private healthcare provider in the Middle East, American Hospital, part of Mohamed & Obaid Al Mulla Group, was established in 1996 with the goal of providing world-class medical service to the community. The 254-bed, acute care, general medical/surgical private hospital has state-of-the-art facilities and an experienced team of healthcare professionals specialized in more than 40 medical and surgical specialties assuring comprehensive care.

Before embarking on his professional journey, Dr. Comair received his medical degree from St Joseph University in Beirut, Lebanon, and completed his residency in neurosurgery and his fellowship in brain tumor and functional neurosurgery at the prestigious Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University in Canada.

Subsequently, he was appointed Assistant Professor and Chief of Pediatric Epilepsy and Brain Tumor Surgery at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), where he and his colleagues contributed to establishing epilepsy surgery as an essential treatment modality of certain types of catastrophic epilepsy in childhood. He also pioneered the use of awake craniotomies for the resection of brain tumors in the eloquent cortex. 

In 1992, Dr. Comair was appointed Head of the Division of Epilepsy Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, before returning to Beirut in 1998 to lead the Division of Neurosurgery at the American University of Beirut. During his tenure, the Division of Neurosurgery became the pacesetter of neurosurgical care in the region. He founded the first comprehensive epilepsy surgery program in the MENA and eastern Mediterranean region and introduced several neurosurgical advances.

Later, he was drawn back to Houston, Texas, where he was appointed Professor and Vice-Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at the Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Medical Center, and Chief of Neurosurgery at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in 2006. He also served as the Dean of the LAU School of Medicine and was an attending physician at the Clemenceau Medical Center in Lebanon, before joining American Hospital Dubai.

Recognized as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada (FRCSC) and a Diplomate of the American Board of Neurosurgery, Dr. Comair is an active member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, the Joint Section on Cerebrovascular Surgery, the Joint Section on Stereotactic Functional Neurosurgery, the American Epilepsy Society, the Houston Neurological Society, the Harris County Medical Society, the Canadian Neurological Society, the North American Skull Base Society, and the Society of Neuroscience.

Moreover, he serves on the board of directors of the World Society of Functional and Stereotactic Neurosurgery and has been elected to the Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery Committee of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE). He has educated scores of neurosurgical trainees in the MENA region and the United States, authored more than 120 publications in peer-reviewed journals, two leading textbooks of neurosurgery, and contributed chapters to more than 40 textbooks in his specialty.

Neurosurgery is the medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, surgical treatment, and rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, and extra-cranial cerebrovascular system. Neurosurgeons are doctors who diagnose and treat problems with the nervous system, often by performing surgery on the brain or spine. They treat strokes, tumors, cervical and lumbar disc disease, infections, and head or spinal cord injuries.

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