Dr MJ Arunkumar (Moses Joseph Arunkumar) joined the prestigious Christian Medical College, Vellore for pursuing his medical education (MBBS) in the year 1985. After completing his undergraduate studies, he joined back in the department of Neurosciences at the Christian Medical College, Vellore for training in Neurosurgical speciality.
He completed post-graduation (M.Ch) in Neurosurgery in the year 1998 from CMC, Vellore. He also received the Diplomate of National Board, New Delhi (D.N.B.) in Neurosurgery in the year 1999. He worked as a Consultant in the department of Neurosurgery, CMC hospital, Vellore for a period of one year before he came to Madurai in the year 2000. As a Neurosurgical post graduate resident he had authored a number of articles in the National and International journals which are cited even today in the Medline search (PubMed). He is a fabulous Neurosurgeon with gifted hands trained in micro neurosurgery of the brain and spine at the Christian Medical College, Vellore. Dr MJ Arunkumar is indebted to his mentors Professor Mathew J Chandy and Professor V Rajshekhar who have shaped him to be one of the finest Neurosurgeons in this part of the country.
Dr MJ Arunkumar was invited to start the department of Neurosurgery/ Neurological Sciences at Apollo Hospital, Madurai in the year 2000 by none other than Dr. Prathap C Reddy, Chairman of the Apollo group of hospitals. When at Apollo hospital, he did the first Endonasal complete excision of the Pituitary (brain) tumour through the nose in December 2000 for the first time in South Tamilnadu (Ref: Press / Media). Again in the year 2001, he did the first successful microsurgical clipping of the brain aneurysm in southern Tamil Nadu (Ref: Press / Media). He brought in a lot of Neurosurgical innovations in those seven years while he was with the Apollo speciality hospital, Madurai. He developed a new set of protocols aggressively treating brain and spine injured patients in the intensive care units successfully. He worked there as Consultant Neurosurgeon till January 2008 and then left Apollo hospital to start his own hospital.
Hannah Joseph Hospital was started by Dr MJ Arunkumar, M.B.B.S., M.Ch. (Neuro), D.N.B (Neurosurgery) its Founder Chairman & Managing Director on the April 1st 2008 at the Lake View Road, K.K. Nagar, Madurai. It was then a 40 bedded Neurosciences and Trauma Centre with 3 Intensive Care Units and a Twin Operation Theatre. This hospital had an in-house Hi speed CT scanner (GE, USA) apart from its Labs, Pharmacy and Radiology services. This place serves as the company’s registered office at present.
Dr MJ Arunkumar has been a pioneer in performing and bringing in several advanced Neurosurgical technologies for the first time in Madurai & South Tamilnadu.
He was passionate on procuring modern gadgets for the advancement of Neurosurgery in Madurai city to be at par with the West and other Metropolitan cities of our country.
Several milestones (Ref: Press / Media) have been touched upon since the start of the Hannah Joseph hospital in the city.
Dr MJ Arunkumar had visited countries like Germany, UK, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy and the United States of America to gain advanced surgical skills and technology in the field of Microneurosurgery & Endoscopic Neurosurgery. He is the first to bring in the concept of using modern Neurosurgical gadgets in Central and Southern part of Tamil Nadu. The introduction of the high end Neurosurgical microscope (Carl Zeiss Pentero 900, Germany) with Tumour Fluorescence technology and Intra operative Angiography (ICG/Flow 800) in Neurovascular surgeries in the year 2015, the Brain and Spine Neuro navigation technology from BrainLab, Germany for the first time to the city of Madurai in the year 2016 were some of the contributions made by
Dr MJ Arunkumar to modernise Neurosurgery in this part of the country. He has been an invited Guest Faculty in Neurosurgery for many State and National Neurosurgical conferences. He has authored several national & international peer reviewed publications in the last two decades in Neurosurgery and its allied sciences. He has also been the Examiner for the Diplomate of National Board of Examinations in Neurosurgery.
Dr MJ Arunkumar was elected as President (2022-2023) of the Tamilnadu Association of Neurological Surgeons (TANS) in the annual meeting held at Chennai in April, 2019. The Hindu has published a monograph titled “The Life Story of a Neurosurgeon” by Soma Basu in its Metro Plus edition dated 5th, May 2016 to highlight the work of Dr MJ Arunkumar.
1. Sacral nerve root cysts: A review on pathophysiology.
ArunKumar MJ, Selvapandian S, Chandy MJ. Neurol India. 1999 Mar;47(1):61-4.
PMID: 10339712 Review.
2. Medullomyoblastoma: A case report.
ArunKumar MJ, Chacko G, Chandi SM, Chandy MJ. Neurol India. 1999 Mar;47(1):55-7.
PMID: 10339710
3. Marinacci communication: an electrophysiological study.
Meenakshi-Sundaram S, Sundar B, Arunkumar MJ. Clin Neurophysiol. 2003
Dec;114(12):2334-7. doi: 10.1016/s1388-2457(03)00260-8.
PMID: 14652092
4. Unusual case of temporal dermoid cyst presenting as oculomotor nerve palsy.
Adulkar NG, Arunkumar MJ, Kumar SM, Kim U. Indian J Ophthalmol. 2014
Oct;62(10):1032-4. doi: 10.4103/0301-4738.146039.
PMID: 25449944 Free PMC article.
5. Intrasellar tuberculoma presenting as pituitary apoplexy.
Arunkumar MJ, Rajshekhar V. Neurol India. 2001 Dec;49(4):407-10.
PMID: 11799419
6. Outcome in neurologically impaired patients with craniovertebral junction tuberculosis: results of combined anteroposterior surgery.
Arunkumar MJ, Rajshekhar V. J Neurosurg. 2002 Sep;97(2 Suppl):166-71. doi: 10.3171/spi.2002.97.2.0166.
PMID: 12296673
7. Spontaneous fluctuation in the size of a midline posterior fossa arachnoid cyst.
Arunkumar MJ, Haran RP, Chandy MJ. Br J Neurosurg. 1999 Jun;13(3):326-8. doi: 10.1080/02688699943781.
PMID: 10562848
8. Motor and somatosensory evoked potentials in a primate model of experimental spinal cord injury.
Arunkumar MJ, Srinivasa Babu K, Chandy MJ. Neurol India. 2001 Sep;49(3):219-24.
PMID: 11593236
9. Changes in cervical spine curvature after uninstrumented one- and two-level corpectomy in patients with
spondylotic myelopathy.
Rajshekhar V, Arunkumar MJ, Kumar SS. Neurosurgery. 2003 Apr;52(4):799-804; discussion 804-5.
doi: 10.1227/01.neu.0000054218.50113.40.
PMID: 12657175
10. Neurocutaneous melanosis: a case of primary intracranial melanoma with metastasis.
Arunkumar MJ, Ranjan A, Jacob M, Rajshekhar V. Clin Oncol (R Coll Radiol). 2001;13(1):52-4. doi: 10.1053/clon.2001.9215.
PMID: 11292138
11. High cervical and lumbar canal stenosis of varied etiology: a case report.
Arunkumar MJ, Rajshekhar V. Neurol India. 2002 Mar;50(1):81-3.
PMID: 11960158
12. Penetrating intracranial wooden object: case report and review of CT morphology, complications, and management.
Arunkumar MJ, Selvapandian S, Rajshekhar V. Surg Neurol. 1999 Jun;51(6):617-20. doi: 10.1016/s0090-3019(99)00029-4.
PMID: 10369229
13. Management and outcome of brain abscess in renal transplant recipients.
Arunkumar MJ, Rajshekhar V, Chandy MJ, Thomas PP, Jacob CK. Postgrad Med J. 2000 Apr;76(894):207-11. doi: 10.1136/pmj.76.894.207.
PMID: 10727562 Free PMC article.
14. Dynamic CSF flow study in the pathophysiology of syringomyelia associated with arachnoid cysts of the posterior fossa.
Arunkumar MJ, Korah I, Chandy MJ. Br J Neurosurg. 1998 Feb;12(1):33-6. doi: 10.1080/02688699845483.
PMID: 11013645
15. Uninstrumented ventral surgery for subaxial cervical spine tuberculosis: clinical and radiological outcome.
Moorthy RK, Arunkumar MJ, Rajshekhar V. Br J Neurosurg. 2004 Dec;18(6):584-9. doi: 10.1080/02688690400022839.
PMID: 15799189
16. Recurrent venous thrombosis with factor V Leiden mutation.
Meenakshi-Sundaram S, Sridhar R, Jithendrian JJ, Durai RN, Arunkumar MJ, Sundar B. J Assoc Physicians India. 2005 Jul;53:642-4.
PMID: 16190136
17. A petrous bone artefact on MRI: technical note.
Arunkumar MJ, Haran RP. Neuroradiology. 1998 Jun;40(6):385-6. doi: 10.1007/s002340050606.
PMID: 9689629
18. Artifacts in magnetic resonance images following anterior cervical discectomy and fusion: report of two cases.
Arunkumar MJ, Rajshekhar V. Br J Neurosurg. 1998 Dec;12(6):553-5. doi: 10.1080/02688699844411.
PMID: 10070465
19. Susceptible and protective associations of HLA DRB1*/DQB1* alleles and haplotypes with ischaemic stroke.
Murali V, Rathika C, Ramgopal S, Padma Malini R, Arun Kumar MJ, Neethi Arasu V, Jeyaram Illiayaraja K, Balakrishnan K. Int J
Immunogenet. 2016 Jun;43(3):159-65. doi: 10.1111/iji.12266. Epub 2016 Apr 22.
PMID: 27105925
20. Sacral nerve root cysts: A review on pathophysiology.
ArunKumar MJ, Selvapandian S, Chandy MJ. Neurol India. 1999 Mar;47(1):61-4.
PMID: 10339712 Review.
21. Medullomyoblastoma: A case report.
ArunKumar MJ, Chacko G, Chandi SM, Chandy MJ. Neurol India. 1999 Mar;47(1):55-7.
PMID: 10339710
22. Neuroacanthocytosis misdiagnosed as Huntington’s disease: a case report.
Meenakshi-Sundaram S, Arun Kumar MJ, Sridhar R, Rani U, Sundar B. J Neurol Sci. 2004 Apr 15;219(1-2):163-6.
doi: 10.1016/j.jns.2004.01.003.
PMID: 15050453
Chapter 66, in Volume 2 of the Textbook of Comprehensive Neurosurgery, by Bohr Publications
Past President – Tamilnadu Neurological Surgeons Association (2022- 2023)
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