Hecht was selected for New York Magazine's “Top Doctors” and as one of Castle Connolly's Top Doctors for the New York Metro Area for Orthopaedic Spine Surgery and Castle Connolly's “Top Doctors in America” for Orthopaedic Spine Surgery.[4] He was elected as “Top Physician” to The New York Times Super Doctors and Best Doctors in America.[5]
Hecht is the author of numerous original peer-reviewed articles, abstracts, invited contributions, multiple books and book chapters and is a contributing author to the
Interactive Educational Program for Spine.[6] He recently contributed and edited an issue of Seminars in Spine Surgery dedicated to Spine Injuries in Athletes.[7] He directs the acute spine and spinal cord injury program for the New York Jets and routinely cares for athletes who sustain spine injuries.
In 2001, Hecht served as instructor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Harvard Medical School. That same year, Hecht founded the
Newton-Wellesley Spine Center and served as it medical co-director. In 2002, he served as Director of the Spine Surgery Fellowship at
Massachusetts General Hospital. In 2003, he joined Mount Sinai Medical Center as Chief of Spine Surgery and assistant professor of Orthopaedic Surgery.
Hecht is a member of the
North American Spine Society, the
Cervical Spine Research Society and the
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and serves on the medical board of trustees at the
Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation.[8] Additionally, he serves on the faculty of numerous courses and meetings to teach spine surgeons the latest clinical advances and surgical techniques. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Spinal Disorders and Techniques and sits on the Publications Committee for the
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and founded and directed a course at Mount Sinai Medical Center to educate primary care doctors about musculoskeletal disorders. He lectures nationally and internationally on spine surgery.
Hecht's clinical interests include
cervical and
lumbar spine surgery, the evaluation and surgical management of degenerative disorders of the cervical,
thoracic and lumbar spine,
minimally invasive spinal surgery, microsurgery, spine trauma and
tumors. Research areas include cervical and lumbar spine surgery and intervertebral disc biology.[9]
Honors and awards
2010 Guest Speaker, 10th annual meeting of Advanced Technologies in Spinal Treatment, Tokyo, Japan
1988 Appointed Meiklejohn Academic Fellow, Brown University
Books and chapters
Hecht AC, Leon SP, Kelly RA, and Lilly LS: Cardiovascular Drugs, Pathophysiology of Heart Disease, Lea & Febiger: Philadelphia & London, 1992, pp. 272–305 Outlook/Perspectives in Colon & Rectal Surgery, 5(6):4-6, 1992
Hecht AC, Silcox HD, Whitesides TE: Injuries to the Cervicoranium, Skeletal Trauma: Fractures, Dislocations and Ligamentous Injuries, Ed. Browner B, Jupiter JB, Levine, A and Trafton P, WB Saunders Company: Philadelphia, 2003
Hecht AC, Boden SD: Biology of Spine Fusion, in Advanced Spinal Surgical Technologies, ed. Corbin T, Connolly P, Yuan H, Bao Q, Boden SD, Quality Medical Publishing: St Louis
Hecht AC, Scott D, Critchlow R, Pedlow FX: Treatment of Metastatic Disease of the Spine, Adult and Pediatric Spine, 3rd edition, ed. Frymoyer J, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, pp. 247–289, 2004
Scott D, Hornicek FJ, Hecht AC, and Pedlow FX, in Treatment of Primary Sarcomas of the Spine, Adult and Pediatric Spine, 3rd edition, ed. Frymoyer J, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, pp. 191–247, 2004
Qureshi S, Hecht AC: Epidemiology of Spinal Cord Injury, Atlas of Spine Trauma: Adult and Pediatric, ed. Kim DH, Ludwig SC, Vaccaro A, Elsevier, 2008
Chen, M, Qureshi S, Hecht AC: Anterior Thoracic Corpectomy, Operative Techniques in Orthopaedic Surgery, ed. Weisel S, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, in print.
Qureshi S, Hecht AC: Anterior approach to the thoracic spine, Operative Techniques in Orthopaedic Surgery, ed. Weisel S, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, in print.
Boden SD, Bostrom PG, Haydon R, Hecht AC, Kirkpatrick J, Lee FY, Leet A, Levine W, McKellop HA, Miclau T, Nelson F, Parvizi J, Sherma PJ, Wright TM, Orthopaedic Basic Science Self Assessment Examination, American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery, 2006
Publications
Towle CA, Wright M, Hecht AC, Kuong SJ, Papanicolas LE, Totkovic R, Mankin HJ, Treadwell BV: A Matrix Metalloproteinase Proenzyme Activator Produced by Articular Cartilage, Biochem Biophys Res Commun, 247(2):324-331, 1998
PMID9642125
Snyder BD, Hauser-Kara DA, Hipp JA, Zurakowski D, Hecht AC, Gebhardt MC: Predicting fracture through benign skeletal lesions with quantitative computed tomography, J Bone Joint Surg Am 2006, 88(1): 55- 70
PMID16391250
Hecht AC, Degradative Enzyme Systems in Articular Cartilage: Purification, Characterization and Role in Cartilage Degradation of a Novel Serine Protease Isolated from Bovine Articular Cartilage. Thesis, 1994 (awarded magna cum laude Harvard Medical School)
Hecht AC, Silcox H, and Heller JG: A biomechanical and clinical study of transarticular screw fixation with onlay bone grafting. (to be submitted to Spine 2008)
Lewandrowski KU, Hecht AC, Delaney TF, Chapman PA, Hornieck FJ, and Pedlow FX. Anterior spinal arthrodesis with structural cortical allografts and instrumentation for spine tumor surgery, Spine, 29(10):1150-1159, 2004
PMID15131446
Hecht AC, Chen M and Jenkins A: Minimally Invasive approach for far lateral disc herniations at L5-S1: A novel technique and report of 2 patients, Journal of Spinal Disorders and Techniques, (submitted to Journal of Spinal Disorders and Techniques, 2008)
Taitsman LA, Altman DT, Hecht AC, and Pedlow FX. Complications of Cervical Halo-Vest Orthoses in Elderly Patients, Orthopedics, 31(5):446, 2008
PMID19292320
Singh H, Hecht AC, and
Jenkins AL, Novel Fluoroscopic Technique for Localization at Cervicothoracic Levels, Journal of Spinal Disorders and Techniques, 22(8):615-8
PMID19956037
Koehler SM, Lin JD, Stets KC, Qureshi SA, Martins DA and Hecht AC: Case Report: Lumbar Spinous Process Avulsion Fracture in an Adolescent Dancer, Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, 20(3):213-4, 2010
PMID20445364
Koehler SM, Beasley MB, Chin CS, Wittig JC, Hecht AC, Qureshi SA, Synovial Sarcoma of the Thoracic Spine, Spine Journal, Dec 9(12):el-6, 2009
PMID19800298
Hecht AC, Koehler SM, Laudone JC, Jenkins AJ, Qureshi SA, Is Intraoperative CT of Posterior Cervical Spine Instrumentation Cost Effective and Does it Reduce Complications, Clinical Orthopaedics And Related Research, October 2010
PMID20922584
Bronson WH, Koehler SM, Qureshi SA, and Hecht AC, Importance of plain film radiography in the evaluation of low back pain and radiculopathy due to recurrent lumbar disc herniation, Orthopaedics, 12:33(5), 2010