Erika A. Petersen, M.D. Neurosurgeon

Clinical Biography

Dr. Erika Petersen attended the Princeton University, where she majored in European history. She completed her medical studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While undertaking her neurosurgical residency training at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas, she completed a research and clinical fellowship in functional neurosurgery at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London. Following completion of her residency, Dr. Petersen joined the neurosurgery faculty at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). She directs the Section of Functional and Restorative Neurosurgery at UAMS Medical Center. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at UAMS.

Dr. Petersen is a board certified neurosurgeon whose clinical practice focuses on neuromodulation, treating movement disorders, spasticity, and chronic pain through surgical procedures and stereotactic radiosurgery using the Gamma Knife. These surgeries include deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, and dystonia, spinal cord stimulation, intrathecal drug therapy, surgery for trigeminal neuralgia, and more. She also performs stereotactic radiosurgery for treatment of tumors, vascular brain malformations, and trigeminal neuralgia. Almost all of these therapies are offered in collaboration with comprehensive multidisciplinary teams of neurologists, psychiatrists, anesthesiologists, radiation oncologists, and other specialists to ensure that the best possible care is devised to meet the needs of each patient as an individual.

Dr. Petersen’s research interests focus on using high-resolution imaging to understand the functional interaction of centers within the brain. Her collaborations with colleagues in neuroradiology, neurology and psychiatry are aimed toward identifying new applications for the use of deep brain stimulation.