Neurological Conditions

TMC offers the region's widest array of services for patients with a brain tumor. A multidisciplinary team of neurosurgeons, neuro-oncologists, neurologists, pathologists and neuroradiologists work together with you to determine an innovative and personal treatment plan.

The surgical suites have advanced navigation systems as well as sophisticated devices that allow surgeons to map the brain during surgery. Services include radiation therapy, chemotherapy and access to clinical trials.

The Center for Neurosciences has worked with TMC to create a Brain Tumor Hotline for patients in the hospital or out of the hospital who have been newly diagnosed with a tumor. Appointments can typically be set up on the same day.

Patients with diseases that affect the ears, the balance system and areas around the base of the skull may experience hearing loss, a ringing in the ears, dizziness, inflammation, tumors or nerve disorders.

The otology, neurotology and cranial-base surgery program offers treatment and rehabilitation of complex ear diseases, as well as implantable hearing technologies such as cochlear implants, bone-anchored hearing aids and implantable hearing aids.

More than three million Americans have been diagnosed with epilepsy. It can often be difficult to manage, and many patients continue to have seizures even after initial medical treatment. TMC's Level 3 Epilepsy Center offers an epilepsy specialist for adults and children along with neurosurgeons, who work together to control seizures.

TMC has both adult and pediatric epilepsy monitoring units, or EMUs, and is one of just two centers in the region that can admit patients for surgically placed devices for seizure monitoring. For appropriate patients, TMC offers vagal nerve stimulator placement and management, targeted cortical resection or temporal lobectomy.

TMC is the regional leader in deep brain stimulation, a non-surgical treatment that can reduce tremors and stop involuntary movements in patients with conditions such as Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, dystonia and Tourette's syndrome. This technique of placing electrodes deep into the brain has given life-changing relief for patients suffering from these conditions, reducing tremors, slowness of movement, stiffness and improving walking and other movements.

At our Movement Clinic, we see more than 450 patients with more than 70 deep brain stimulator placements each year.

TMC is the regional leader in spine surgery. The Spine Surgery Program has both neurosurgeons and orthopaedic spine surgeons working together to perform close to 1,000 operations each year.

Spinal problems of all types are handled, from the simple to the complex. The unique collaboration between the neurosurgeons and orthopaedic surgeons has led to the development of a specialized spine care unit in the hospital that focuses on the needs of spinal patients.

A stroke, also know as a brain attack, happens when there is a loss of blood supply to a part of the brain. There are two major types of stroke: ischemic and hemorrhagic. Ischemic strokes can be caused by clogged arteries, a clot forming in an artery that is already narrowed or by a clot breaking off from another place in the body and traveling up to the brain. Hemorrhagic strokes result from a blood vessel in the brain bursting and causing blood to leak into the brain.

TMC is a comprehensive stroke center that has 24/7 coverage by board-certified interventional neuroradiologists along with a neurology and neurosurgery stroke team.

An effective treatment for many strokes is tenecteplase (TNK), a “clot buster” that works best when given within three hours (but can be given up to four and a half hours) of when symptoms first begin. Unfortunately, only about 3 to 5 percent of those who have a stroke get to the hospital in time to have this treatment.

If a clot has blocked a major vessel to the brain, our stroke team can sometimes perform an emergent mechanical thrombectomy to remove the clot up to 24 hours of when symptoms first began. A thrombectomy is a procedure performed in the catheterization lab with the goal of restoring blood flow to the brain.

The rapid-response stroke team at TMC knows that "time is brain." That's why every aspect of the stroke care program is built for maximum speed and efficiency.