Peter Christian Warnke, MD

Internationally renowned neurosurgeon Peter Warnke, MD, has performed more than 8,000 stereotactic surgeries and more than 4,000 brain tumor surgeries. Dr. Warnke provides neurosurgical care for the treatment of:



Movement disorders (including Parkinson's disease, dystonia, torticollis, and tics), with particular expertise in pediatric dystonia, choreoathetosis and cerebral palsy

Epilepsy

Pediatric epilepsy

Primary and secondary brain tumors, including chiasmal/hypothalamic gliomas and craniopharyngiomas

Pediatric brain tumors

He routinely performs neurosurgical procedures with proven expertise, including:



Brain tumor surgery

Epilepsy surgery

Pediatric epilepsy surgery

Deep brain stimulation (DBS)

Endoscopic neurosurgery

Stereotactic radiosurgery

Motor cortex stimulation

Radiofrequency lesioning

Laser ablation

Dr. Warnke is one of the few neurosurgeons fellowship-trained in pediatric neurosurgery, brain tumor surgery (neurooncology), and movement and epilepsy surgery. He has treated one of the largest series of low grade gliomas in adults and children (more than 1,000) and intrinsic other brain tumors. Dr. Warnke has pioneered less invasive interstitial treatments for brain tumors.



In 2021, Dr. Warnke became the first neurosurgeon in Illinois — and only second worldwide — to perform laser hemispherectomy for the treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy in a child. He has also completed the largest series. This highly innovative surgical technique carries significantly lower risk of complications compared to the traditional open hemispherectomy procedure (Operative Neurosurgery, 2023).



Dr. Warnke directs the pediatric and adult epilepsy surgery program within the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center and the MRI-Guided Laser Ablation Program for epilepsy and tumors, with more than 400 laser surgeries performed at UChicago Medicine already employing regular and directional lasers in our intraop MRI-Suite.



Dr. Warnke has a large epilepsy surgery practice and performs open resections, laser ablations and neurostimulation for epilepsy in children and adults. This entails routinely robotic implantations of Stereo-EEG electrodes with image guidance and an intraoperative CT.



The first bilateral interneuron cell treatment of bilateral temporal epilepsy was performed under his guidance (NRTX-1001 Trial).



In addition, Dr. Warnke has a large deep brain stimulation practice for Parkinson’s, essential tremor and dystonia, and was the first neurosurgeon in Chicago to use directional deep brain stimulation.



Dr. Warnke performs psychiatric neurosurgery, in collaboration with the ACID research group in the Department of Psychiatry, predominantly for obsessive compulsive disorder. He has the largest series worldwide of anterior capsulotomies performed by an interstitial laser technique developed at the University of Chicago (Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 2022) and directs a trial of Deep Brain Stimulation in Treatment Resistant Depression.



He has special expertise and certification in stereotactic radiosurgery, including interstitial radiosurgery and stereotactically guided endoscopy which has been combined with image guidance and stereotactic targeting to reduce side effects and increase precision. He directs the REMaster Trial for the treatment of brain metastasis. He also provides care for patients with pain syndromes, including trigeminal neuralgia and neuropathic pain.



He researches the development of biological and minimally invasive treatments for epilepsy, movement disorders and brain tumors using functional imaging and fiber tracking to target deep seated, complex tumors.



Dr. Warnke’s research focuses on Brain-Computer Interface for the motor and sensory cortex and mechanisms of memory formation and is funded collaboratively by 4 NIH grants including the Brain Initiative (Science 2025).



He studies the effect of laser energy on tumor permeability, blood flow and extracellular space in brain tumors to modify drug delivery to increase outcomes in gliomas and brain metastasis.



Dr. Warnke was the associate editor of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry for 15 years, which has the highest impact factor among neurosurgical journals (Impact Factor 13.65), and has published more than 250 papers.



After being the Chair of two major Departments of Neurosurgery, Dr. Warnke treats patients with complex neurosurgical problems seeking innovative new treatments.