John Houten, MD

John K. Houten, MD, is a leader committed to bringing the most advanced technology and treatments to patients with injuries or conditions that affect the spine. He is a nationally renowned board-certified neurosurgeon, specializing in image guided and minimally invasive surgical techniques; a Professor of Neurosurgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; and Director of Spine Surgery at Mount Sinai South Nassau. Dr. Houten treats disoders of the back, neck, and spine including, Lumbar Stenosis, Pseudoarthrosis, Spinal Cord Tumors, Spondylolysis, Herniated Discs, Neck Pain, Cervical Radiculopathy, and Cervical Myelopathy.

His research interests include degenerative disease of the spine, spinal cancer reconstruction, neurological manifestations of spinal disease, and revision spinal surgery.

Dr. Houten graduated from the New York University School of Medicine with Alpha Omega Alpha honors and competed a neurosurgery residency and spinal surgery fellowship at New York University Medical Center. After completing his undergraduate studies at Yeshiva University with summa cum laude honors, he graduated from New York University School of Medicine where he was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha and was awarded the Valentine Mott Medal in surgery.

Dr. Houten served as Chief of the Division of Spinal Neurosurgery at Montefiore Medical Center for over a decade where he oversaw a tremendous expansion of the volume and sophistication of spinal neurosurgery procedures, personally performing the first artificial cervical disc replacements and minimally invasive spinal surgeries in the Bronx. He was recognized as a gifted teacher and prolific researcher and was ultimately promoted to the academic rank of Professor of Clinical Neurosurgery at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
During the academic year of 2015-2016, Dr. Houten relocated to Florida to create a spinal neurosurgery program at the Marcus Neuroscience Institute at Boca Raton Regional Hospital. He then returned to New York where he assumed the positions of Professor of Clinical Neurosurgery at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra Northwell and Director of Spinal Neurosurgery and Neurotrauma at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn. At Maimonides, he has dramatically advanced the clinical capabilities of the institution, bringing computerized, image-guided technology for spinal procedures and many other advanced surgical techniques never previously performed in Brooklyn. Dr. Houten is now investigating the clinical applications of robotics in neurosurgery and was a key figure in Maimonides’s acquisition of one of the first spinal robotic platforms installed in the New York area.

In addition to seeing patients in the office and performing surgery, Dr. Houten is actively conducting clinical research in many facets of spinal degenerative disease and has published more than 40 peer-reviewed journal articles. He serves as Section Editor for Spine and Neurotrauma for the journal World Neurosurgery and Editorial Advisor for BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. He also serves as a reviewer for more than a dozen other scientific journals including Neurosurgery, Pediatric Neurosurgery, Journal of Neurological Sciences, British Journal of Neurosurgery, and Journal of Robotic Surgery.

Dr. Houten lives in Midwood section of Brooklyn, NY, with his wife, Dr. Gila Weinstein, a plastic surgeon with whom he has collaborated on number publications describing specialized closure techniques for spinal surgery.