Neurosurgery

Your nervous system — which includes the brain, spinal cord, nerves, and muscles — is your body’s power source. The parts of the system work together to communicate with the rest of your body, telling each part how and when to function.

If your child has a neurological condition, everyday tasks (from walking to talking to eating) can be difficult. And in some cases, these tasks can even become impossible.

Often, children with neurological conditions can be treated with medication, or can undergo services like physical therapy to improve symptoms. But in other cases, they may need surgery.

At Children’s Hospital & Medical Center, our neurosurgery team offers advanced surgical treatments to children with disorders or injuries of the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerve system (the nerves outside of the brain and spine).

Our Specialists

What Sets Children’s Apart?

• We are the only hospital in the state dedicated solely to pediatric care.
• The neurosurgeons at Children’s use a family-centered approach to care, meaning we consider you and your child to be essential parts of our care team.
• We go beyond medical care. Our social workers, child life specialists, and chaplains ensure that your child’s care includes meeting psychosocial, emotional, and spiritual health needs.

A Team Approach to Care

The Pediatric Neurosurgery group participates in several multidisciplinary clinics, where they work hand-in-hand with providers from other specialties. These clinics include:

• Neurofibromatosis Clinic: The Neurofibromatosis Clinic includes a skilled team of pediatric providers from across many hospitals in the Children’s system. Your child’s neurosurgeon will work with a team that consists of a neurologist, oncologist, medical geneticist/genetic counselor, ophthalmologist, orthopedic surgeon, plastic surgeon, physiatrist, neuropsychologist, social worker, and case manager.
• Complex Care Clinic: This clinic treats children who have medically complex conditions, like spina bifida or cerebral palsy. In addition to your child’s neurosurgeon, this team includes specialists from developmental pediatrics, dietary, genetics, neurology, orthopedics, pulmonology, psychology, social work, nursing, and urology. The team provides evaluation, and care, and medical case-management, including coordination routine medical testing and consultations with appropriate sub-specialists.
• Craniofacial Clinic: At the Craniofacial Clinic, we work to restore normal facial features, improve functioning, and enhance quality of life for children with craniofacial conditions. We are the only clinic in the region that includes a team comprised of a craniofacial surgeon, pediatric neurosurgeon, oral and maxillofacial surgeon, genetic specialist, pediatrician, orthodontist, and oral and maxillofacial prosthodontist.
• Epilepsy Clinic: The team at the Epilepsy Clinic works together to diagnose, treat, and manage symptoms of epilepsy and seizure disorders. We specialize in state-of-the-art minimally invasive epilepsy surgery with iMRI and ROSA robotics.
• Neuro-oncology Clinic: Our skilled team brings together specialists in the fields of neurosurgery, neuro-oncology, radiation therapy, radiology, pathology, critical care medicine, social work, and rehabilitation therapy to treat children who have cancers of the brain or nervous system.

Conditions We Treat

Our neurosurgery team treats injuries (such as those caused by a fall or blow to the head), as well as both congenital and acquired disorders.

• Congenital disorders are ones that your child was born with.
• Acquired disorders are ones that your child develops after birth.

The conditions we treat include:

• Tumors of the Brain and Spine
• Brain and Spine Trauma
• Hydrocephalus
• Chiari Malformations
• Spina Bifida/Myelomeningocele repair
• Tethered spinal cord
• Cerebral Palsy/Spasticity
• Intractable Epilepsy
• Birth related injuries
• Craniosynostosis (Skull Deformities)
• Arachnoid Cysts
• Blood vessel lesions, such as arteriovenous malformations

Our expert surgeons use sophisticated techniques to operate in even the most difficult-to-access locations, from deep structures of the brain (like the thalamus) to tumors that involve very sensitive tissues of the spinal cord.

We are often able to use minimally invasive techniques, which involve making only a few tiny cuts rather than a large incision. This allows your child to have a quicker recovery with less pain and scarring.