Functional Neurosurgery

Epilepsy

For patients with epilepsy, a wide-variety of surgical techniques are used to diagnose and potentially cure seizures. Commonly used techniques include:

• intracranial monitoring, the placement of monitoring electrodes inside your brain,
• laser ablation surgery, the focused removal of tissue causing seizures, and 
• vagus nerve stimulation, which sends regular, mild pulses of electrical energy to a nerve in the neck.
• neuropace RNS, a type of brain-responsive neurostimulation that monitors your brain's electrical activity and stops a seizure before it happens.

Movement Disorders

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a functional neurosurgery procedure used to improve the movement capabilities of patients with epilepsy, essential tremor, Parkinson’s disease, and dystonia. 

We also perform focused ultrasounds to treat essential tremors. It uses high-intensity focused ultrasound energy, guided by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), to heat a small targeted area of tissue in the brain to reduce the tremor.

Trigeminal Neuralgia

For patients with trigeminal neuralgia, a chronic nerve pain condition that commonly affects the face, we use the following surgical procedures.

• Microvascular decompression—We use this technique to remove the blood vessel that's compressing the trigeminal nerve.
• Percutaneous rhizotomy—A small needle is inserted into the trigeminal nerve and damages it so the nerve can no longer send pain to the brain.
• Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS)—This technique uses a targeted beam of radiation to damage the nerve root and stop it from sending pain signals to the brain.