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Pediatrics
The Division of Neurological Surgery at Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center offers comprehensive care for patients with diseases and disorders of the nervous system and its supporting structures. There are seven specialty programs within this division, all involving multidisciplinary care for children.
Below is information about these seven specialty programs... to learn more about these specialties, please link to the Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center Neurosurgery pages.
1. Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Program: This comprehensive program is centered around the pediatric neurosurgery, hematology-oncology, radiation oncology and neurology services and offers the most up-to-date treatments available. The research arm includes National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other extramural-supported efforts for original studies on the molecular aspects of pediatric tumors. Research is performed at the Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Fred Hutchinson Research Center, and the University of Washington Research Laboratories. The clinical service at Children's Hospital is part of the Cancer Care Group consortium of hematology-oncology protocols and is directed by Dr. J. Russell Geyer. The broad and aggressive pediatric neurosurgery effort includes skull base approaches to tumors, minimally invasive endoscopic neurosurgery, frameless stereotaxis and intra-operative adjuvant therapy; all are performed with capabilities for intra-operative electrophysiological monitoring.
2. Craniofacial Program: This internationally renowned program is guided by specialists in pediatric neurosurgery, craniofacial plastic surgery, pediatrics, genetics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, ophthalmology and otolaryngology. This extensive, multidisciplinary clinic cares for patients from all over the country with cranio-synostosis, syndromal craniofacial anomalies, plagiocephaly from positional molding, facial tumors, craniofacial trauma and cleft-lip and palate. The research efforts are centered around understanding suture and bone biology at the molecular and cellular level. Dr. Joseph S. Gruss directs these clinics which offer innovative treatments for these disorders.
3. Congenital Birth Defects Clinic: This pioneering multidisciplinary clinic provides long term care for children with hydrocephalus of all etiologies, neural tube defects, spina bifida, tethered spinal cord, syringomyelia, lipomeningomyelocle and other less common abnormalities of development. A wide array of pediatric subspecialty services participate in this clinic, including pediatric neurology, urology, orthopedics, general surgery, neurogenetics, neurological surgery, and other allied health care providers. Neurosurgical areas of interest include treatments for hydrocephalus, endoscopic ventricular surgery, Chiari malformations and syringomyelia, CSF flow physiology and utilization of advanced imaging techniques.
4. Comprehensive Epilepsy Program: This surgical epilepsy program is part of the University of Washington's comprehensive epilepsy program. Epileptologists, neuro-psychologists, social workers and neurosurgeons make up the management team. Awake intra-operative mapping, intra-operative electrocorticography and pre-resection invasive monitoring are used. A broad range of surgical expertise is offered, such as hemispherectomy, corpus callosotomy, vagal stimulation, temporal lobectomy, extra-temporal resection and subpial resection. Individual patient cases are reviewed prior to surgery at a weekly conference attended by surgeons, neurologists, and neuro-psychologists from the University of Washington Medical Center (UWMC), Harborview Medical Center (HMC) and Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center (CHRMC). The Surgical Epilepsy Program is directed by Dr. Jeffrey Ojemann at CHRMC.
5. Pediatric Neurovascular Team: This team of neurosurgeons, neuro-interventional radiologists and radiation therapists treat the entire spectrum of cerebrovascular diseases of the brain and spine. The pediatric diseases treated include arteriovenous malformations (AVM), cavernous malformations, spinal malformations, Moya-Moya disease and aneurysms. The multidisciplinary team involves neurosurgeons, Drs. David W. Newell and Richard G. Ellenbogen, interventional neuro-radiologists, Drs. Joseph M. Eskridge and Douglas Haynor, and a neuro-radiologist, Dr. Dennis Shaw. This team utilizes innovative, state-of-the-art technologies to evaluate and treat vascular disorders. Radiosurgery capability includes both Gamma Knife® and LINAC Scalpel®. Functional MRI is used for cortical localization and mapping. The interventional surgical capabilities include AVM resection preceded by embolization and cortical mapping, cerebrovascular bypass, and revascularization procedures. Similar approaches are utilized in the treatment of cerebral aneurysms and Moya-Moya disease.
6. Complex Spine Service: Congenital and acquired deformities of the spine are treated by a team of neurosurgeons, Drs. Richard G. Ellenbogen, orthopedic spine surgeons, Drs. Mohammed Diab, Kit Song, and rehabilitation medicine specialists. Spinal cord tumors, complex congenital deformities, spondylolisthesis/spondylolysis, fractures and deformities are repaired with the most modern spinal instrumentation techniques and intra-operative monitoring. Postoperative rehabilitation for those traumatic injuries is undertaken at CHRMC’s rehabilitative medicine unit, directed by Dr. Kenneth Jaffe.
7. Spasticity Management Team: This team consists of neurosurgeons, neurologists, orthopedic surgeons, development pediatricians, physical and rehabilitation medicine physicians and physical therapists. Selective dorsal rhizotomy, baclofen pumps, botulism toxin injections and tendon releases are all part of the armamentarium to treat the wide spectrum of children with spasticity. This multidisciplinary clinic is continuously analyzing outcomes and improving methods for treating these children.
Introduction
| Aneurysms | Brain
Mapping | Case Studies | Chiari
Malformation
Congenital Abnormalities | Epilepsy
| Movement Disorders | Pain
and Spasticity
Pediatrics | Peripheral
Nerves | Radio Surgery and Radiotherapy
Spine | Stroke
and Vascular Lesions | Trauma | Tumors