Treatment and Technology:
A comprehensive specialty involving the brain, spine and nervous system, offering expert treatment and support for the full range of neurological conditions including, but not limited to:
Spine:
Cervical degenerative disease
Cervical radiculopathy
Cervical stenosis and myelopathy
Compression fractures
Kyphoplasty
Lumbar degenerative disease
Lumbar radiculopathy
Lumbar stenosis and neurogenic claudication
Spinal deformities and injuries
Spinal osteomyelitis and discitis
Spinal trauma
Spinal tumors
Brain:
AVMs
Awake craniotomy
Brain aneurysms
Brain infections
Brain tumors
Cavernomas
Chiari malformation
Gliomas
Hydrocephalus
Meningiomas
Metastatic disease
Pituitary tumors
Traumatic brain injury
Trigeminal neuralgia
Vascular neurosurgery
Innovative procedures:
Endoscopic neurosurgery
Gamma Knife radiosurgery
Minimally invasive craniotomy
Motion preservation spine surgery
Motion restoration spine surgery
Robotic-assisted minimally invasive spine surgery
Other services available:
Carpal tunnel and peripheral nerve surgery
Neurotrauma
Pediatric neurosurgery
Second opinion clinic
Technology
The Center also offers the following treatments and technologies:
Intraoperative fluorescence imaging for tumor
Intraoperative fluorescence imaging helps neurosurgeons remove malignant brain tumors that have poorly defined borders. High-grade gliomas may have a central mass, but they often extend tentacles of tumor cells into adjacent brain tissue. Surgeons can identify these cells more easily when they are illuminated and made to fluoresce with special medications.
Intraoperative ultrasound and electrophysiology
Surgeons use various types of intraoperative electrophysiology during surgery to make sure they do not cause harm during tumor removal. This important technology is critical when surgeons operate near “functional” tracts – areas involved with movement, balance and coordination. Evoked potential monitoring is used during surgery for acoustic neuromas to ensure that the facial nerve is not harmed.
When surgeons remove a tumor, the brain adjusts to the vacancy by shifting. Intraoperative ultrasound is a type of real-time image guidance that helps surgeons understand how the brain is adjusting during tumor removal. Intraoperative ultrasound also enables surgeons to ensure that blood flow to the brain continues unimpaired during the procedure.
Awake craniotomy
A craniotomy is a procedure in which neurosurgeons remove part of the skull. In some delicate procedures, this is done while the patient is awake so that the surgeon can use brain-mapping techniques to avoid critical functional areas, such as speech or arm movement. The patient performs tasks, such as reading, while the exposed brain is stimulated. The patient feels no pain.
Endoscopic brain surgery
Endoscopic surgery is minimally invasive surgery in which surgeons make small, keyhole incisions in the skull, eyelid or nose, and use long slender instrumentation (endoscopes) to remove tumors located deep within the brain. Endoscopic surgery is often performed during skull base surgery, with tumors being removed through the nose.
The robotic guidance platform combines preoperative planning tools and analytics with intraoperative guidance, giving Mercy Health surgeons advanced spinal surgery options. Our surgical robotic guidance technology allows our surgeons to visualize your patient's anatomy and pre-plan their surgery in 3D, and then use robotic guidance to execute their procedure. Robotic guided surgery has many benefits for the patients including smaller incisions, less risk for surgical complications and reduced postoperative pain.
Mercy Health – The Neuroscience Institute is the first in Ohio to offer Omniscient Neurotechnology’s Quicktome. This is an FDA-cleared precision brain mapping platform designed to visualize a patient’s unique brain networks prior to surgery. The neurosurgeons can create network templates of an individual’s cognitive and emotional regulation networks within the brain, allowing them to tailor surgical approaches to a patient's individualized anatomy. This helps the neurosurgeons achieve the maximal safe removal of the tumor while avoiding adjacent brain networks.