Neurosurgery Department, UF College of Medicine
Chester E. Sutterlin, MD
Special Interests:
Spinal Biomechanics and Engineering
Chester E. Sutterlin, MD, F.A.C.S. ("Chet") was born in Louisville, Kentucky. His father, who was a civil engineer, specialized in construction of large projects requiring that the family travel extensively through North America and worldwide. Chet graduated form high school in Louisville, Kentucky in 1968. He attended undergraduate school at Purdue University on an academic scholarship and graduated with a BS degree in Civil Engineering in 1972 followed by an MS degree in Civil/Ocean Engineering from Oregon State University in 1974. Chet worked for the US Army Corps of Engineers for two years in Portland, Oregon. In preparation for application to medical school he obtained another BS degree (Biology) from Portland State University in 1977 and was enrolled in the Microbiology Ph.D. program when he was accepted to medical school in 1978. He graduated from Oregon Health Sciences University with a M.D. degree in 1982. Chet completed five years of Orthopedic Surgery Residency at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida in 1987 and a Fellowship in Spinal Reconstructive Surgery from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland in 1988. He became a Faculty Member of the Department of Orthopedics at the University of South Florida following his Fellowship.
Chet moved to Gainesville, Florida in 1991 and developed a successful private practice (Spinal Health Centers, P.A.) while maintaining academic interests in education as Director of the Florida Fellowship in Reconstructive Spinal Surgery and as a Clinical Associate Professor in the Departments of Neurosurgery and Orthopedics at the University of Florida. He also pursued research interests by developing the Spinal Biomechanics Testing Laboratory at the University of Florida Tissue Bank. He retired from private practice at age 50 in December 2000 and joined the research and education Faculty in the Department of Neurosurgery in 2002.
Chet is the author of numerous articles and book chapters related to spinal surgery and biomechanics. He is a member of many professional organizations. His engineering background has been instrumental in Chet's approach to complex reconstructive spinal surgery and he has been involved in the research and development of many spinal implants, fixation systems, and procedures.
Dr. Sutterlin's clinical interests include adolescent and adult complex reconstructive spinal surgery. He is also a specialist in minimally invasive spinal procedures, having performed the first thoracoscopic/laparoscopic spinal operation in the Southeast USA in the mid-1990s and the first microendoscopic discectomy in Florida soon thereafter.
View publications by Dr. Chester Sutterlin
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