Patrick Karas was born in Cleveland, OH. He completed his undergraduate education at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH with degrees in mathematics and chemistry. He then obtained his MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, NY. Dr. Karas completed his neurosurgery residency at Baylor College of Medicine. During his residency he was awarded an NIH R25 grant to study multisensory integration using human intracranial recordings. His training also included over a year of time dedicated to brain tumor surgery at MD Anderson Cancer Center. After completing residency, he continued his study of epilepsy surgery techniques at the Charles Shor Epilepsy Center at the Cleveland Clinic.
Dr. Karas’s clinical interests include epilepsy surgery, brain and skull base tumor surgery, and functional neurosurgery. He performs the full range of modern techniques for epilepsy surgery, including robotic sEEG placement, open resection, minimally invasive laser ablation, and neuromodulation techniques (responsive neurostimulation and deep brain stimulation). He also offers awake surgery and advanced brain mapping techniques for difficult to remove brain tumors. Additional clinical interests include deep brain stimulator insertion for movement disorders, as well as percutaneous and open techniques for the treatment of facial pain.
Dr. Karas also runs a lab studying human electrophysiology. Current projects focus on using intracranial brain recordings to understand how auditory and visual signals are combined in multisensory regions of the brain.
Dr. Karas currently serves as a full-time faculty Neurosurgeon at UTMB, operating at both Galveston and Clear Lake campuses. He is a member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, American Association of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgeons, Texas Association of Neurosurgeons, and the American Epilepsy Society.