For Immediate Release
March 29, 2001
Contact: Maria E. Ramos
(219) 865-2141, ext. 45321
Maria.Ramos@ssfhs.org

Hammond, Ind - - Saint Margaret Mercy Healthcare Centers announced the opening of a Brain & Spine Institute in a press conference held on March 29 at its North Campus. The Brain & Spine Institute brings to the hospital the future of neurosurgery, in a word – superspecialties.

Heading the new project is a team of neurosurgeons affiliated with the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC):

• Dr. James I. Ausman, a board-certified neurosurgeon and world-renowned cerebrovascular surgeon, who is also professor and chairman of the department of Neurosurgery at UIC.
  
  
• Dr. Fady Charbel, a board-certified neurosurgeon and world-renowned cerebrovascular surgeon, who is also chairman of the divisions of Neurovascular Surgery, Critical Care Surgery and Neurovascular Research at UIC.
  
  
• Dr. Kern Guppy, a neurosurgeon who specializes in complex spine surgery and general neurosurgery; he also is an assistant professor of neurosurgery and of bioengineering at UIC.
  
  
• Dr. Franklin C. Wagner, a board-certified neurosurgeon, who is particularly skilled in dealing with the failed spine, redo backs and necks, and complex spine problems.

The goal of the Brain & Spine Institute is to bring new discoveries and advances in the field of neurosurgery to the physicians and their patients at Saint Margaret Mercy Healthcare Centers. The University team brings expertise in:

• Spine surgery
• Surgery for degenerative spine
• Complex spine surgery
• Instrumentation, including pedicle screws and Ray Cages®
• Cerebrovascular surgery
• Re-vascularization for stroke patients
• Surgery for Aneurysms, AVMs
• Embolization and coiling
• Peripheral nerve repair
• Chronic pain, movement disorders and epilepsy
• Pediatric neurosurgery
• Neuro-oncology

Team’s procedures prove beneficial

“There are many procedures that can benefit stroke patients, in addition to the standard carotid endarterectomy,” Dr. Ausman said. “We can perform angioplasties both intracranially (MCA, vertebral and basilar) or extracranially (carotid and vertebral) with stent placements.”

“Bypass surgery has had a resurgence and with the aid of hemodynamic studies, the patients who can benefit from these procedures can be selected,” he added. According to neurosurgeons nationwide, AVMs appear to be decreasing in number, yet Nidus embolization remains the initial treatment of choice for many of these patients. “With embolization, the size can be reduced to allow surgical removal or radiosurgery,” Dr. Ausman said. “Many large AVMs previously believed untreatable can be embolized and reduced in size for resection or radiotherapy, even if located in the motor strip.”

Rare tumor removed

In November 2000, Drs. Guppy and Wagner operated on an 80-year-old female who presented with severe lumbar radicular pain. Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the lumbar spine showed a large paraspinal mass, which invaded the L5 lumbar body and the left foramen at L5/S1. CT-guided biopsy revealed an intramuscular myxoma. The patient underwent surgery for removal of the tumor with nerve root decompression. The diagnosis of intramuscular myxoma was confirmed and the patient had complete resolution of her presenting symptoms. This case was subsequently reported in a paper written for the Journal of Neurosurgery and represents the third reported case (the first in the English literature) of an intramuscular (paraspinal) myxoma presenting with lumbar nerve root compression.

Linac-based Stereotactic Radiosurgery

The Neurosurgery team, in collaboration with Dr. Urmi P. Kalokhe in Saint Margaret Mercy’s department of Radiation Oncology, will bring a unique treatment for brain tumors and AVMs. Linac-based stereotactic radiosurgery uses high levels of radiation that are precisely directed to the lesions, thus giving surgical precision to treatment to a given lesion.

The team at the Brain & Spine Institute looks forward to assisting physicians in evaluating patients for potential procedures. A series of educational seminars are being planned.

For more information on the Brain & Spine Institute, call 1-866-932-0605 or (219) 932-2300, ext. 38050.