Matthew T. Bender, M.D.

Professional Background

Dr. Bender is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Disease.

Clinical interests: Dr. Bender specializes the management of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke and underlying pathologies, including brain aneurysms, cranial and spinal vascular malformations, moyamoya disease, and carotid atherosclerosis. He offers patients both endovascular and open surgical treatments depending on individualized consideration of invasiveness, risk, and durability.

Cerebrovascular neurosurgery is one of medicine’s frontiers and Dr. Bender has introduced several new procedures to the University of Rochester, including radial angiography and intervention, middle meningeal artery embolization for subdural hematoma, and digital spinal myelography for the identification of CSF-venous fistulae. He performs traditional microsurgical aneurysm clipping, AVM resection, and direct cerebral arterial bypass. Dr. Bender also has broad experience in general neurosurgery, including spine pathology, primary and metastatic brain tumors, trigeminal neuralgia, chiari malformation, and hydrocephalus.

Research: Dr. Bender’s laboratory investigates cerebral arterial thrombus, a biospecimen to which neurosurgeons performing endovascular thrombectomy for large vessel occlusion ischemic stroke have privileged access. The lab employs mass spectrometry as an unbiased and quantitative tool to understand the proteomic makeup of stroke thrombus. This research is illuminating causes of ischemic stroke and helping developing new therapeutic strategies.

Dr. Bender also believes in the importance of rigorously analyzing clinical practice and sharing novel insights. Among his clinical research interests are: cerebral aneurysm flow diversion, mechanical thrombectomy sub-populations and interventional technique, and mobile stroke technology.

Background: Dr. Bender completed Neurological Surgery residency and a two-year enfolded Endovascular Neurosurgery fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He grew up in Hamburg, NY and graduated summa cum laude from Yale. Dr. Bender worked for two years as a management consultant in the Chicago office of McKinsey & Co before attending medical school at Johns Hopkins.