Neurosurgery

Diagnostic methods in pediatric neurosurgery

If there is a suspicion of a certain neurological disease that requires neurosurgical assistance, the child is referred for a detailed diagnosis. Only the best specialists who have adopted the Israeli experience and methods of conducting high-quality diagnostic examinations work in the diagnostic department. Planning certain research methods we have to take into account the age of the child, his main illness, the need to create certain conditions of care (for example, for children with special anatomy or general development).

If the diagnosis requires applying the invasive methods, then all such procedures are provided according to world standards in pediatric practice under general anesthesia and sedation. And our small patients do not feel even a shred of pain, fear or other psychological discomfort.

To make an accurate diagnosis, only modern and safe medical examinations are used. Such as:

• various laboratory blood tests;
• CT and MRI of the head, spine, and, if necessary, the whole body, 3D and 4D modeling of the problem area;
• PET-CT of the brain and spinal cord;
• color dopplerography of the head and neck vessels;
• angiography of the head, spine and neck arteries;
• neurophysiological diagnostic methods;
• providing a spinal canal puncture and various liquor examinations (cerebrospinal fluid);
• biopsy, cytological and histological tests, immunohistochemical and immunofluorescence examination of tissue samples (for example, parts of a tumor).

If a biopsy is required during the diagnostic search, tissue samples are sent to Maimonides' Israeli, American, or German partner clinics or affiliated medical institutions for research. We do this for 100% verification of the histopathological diagnosis. Thanks to such "molecular checks", we are absolutely sure of the final diagnosis adequacy and the subsequent individually selected treatment scheme success.

Thanks to modern and innovative equipment, diagnosis is fast and accurate, which is very important for successfully overcoming the disease or its consequences.

All necessary research is conducted in subsidiary institutions of the Maimonides Clinic or partner medical centers under the guidance of Israeli specialists, where the samples and materials of each patient and, if necessary, the child himself together with his parents or custodians are sent.

Treatment methods in the Pediatric Neurosurgery Department

The main treatment method in neurosurgery is surgery intervention. Surgical assistance for all Maimonides Medical Center patients are provided according to the latest and minimally traumatic techniques. To access the necessary area of the brain or spinal cord, only minimal incisions are used (for example, endonasal incisions while the pituitary gland of the brain surgeries).

In the Pediatric Neurosurgery Department, specialists with large experience provide the following surgeries:

• ventriculo-peritoneal shunting;
• brain ventricles shunting;
• endoscopic ventriculocisternostomy of the third brain ventricle bottom;
• decompression laminectomy;
• aqueductoplasty;
• ventriculocystostomy;
• endoscopic shunting for hydrocephalus;
• decompressive craniectomy;
• stereotaxic craniotomy;
• translabyrinthine craniotomy;
• benign and malignant brain and spinal cord tumors removing;
• congenital defects correction in the development of facial and cerebral part of the skull (craniosynostosis, Greig syndrome, Crouzons syndrome, platybasia, Gruber syndrome, Franceschetti-Zvolen craniofacial dysostosis, etc.);
• defects correction in the development of brain blood vessels (aneurysms, malformations, hemangiomas, etc.);
• surgeries for spine diseases with or without compression of the spinal cord;
• surgical treatment of craniocerebral injuries, infectious complications, strokes.

Doctors also provide surgical treatment for children with cerebral palsy. Such procedures make it possible to obtain good results in terms of motor functions restoration in sick children. Examples of such modern procedures are an intrathecal baclofen pump implantation, selective dorsal rhizotomy, stereotaxic surgery on the basal ganglia.

Special attention should be paid to the advanced surgical methods of epilepsy treating , which are perfectly mastered by doctors of the partner clinics of the Maimonides Medical Center. If such treatment is necessary, the patient can be referred to appropriate medical institutions to receive highly qualified neurosurgical assistance.

Also, patients of Maimonides Medical Center have access to experimental treatment regimens using drugs and surgical techniques that are undergoing clinical research. As part of such programs, all necessary examinations and treatment procedures for the patient are free of charge. This is a real chance for a healthy life for those children in whom standard treatment regimens have proven ineffective.

The medical staff of children's neurosurgery has all the specialized training for successful work in this field. Psychologists and rehabilitators regularly communicate with patients of the department, as well as with their family members.

Parents or custodians receive all necessary information about the specifics of care after treatment, nutrition, exercise and post-operative recovery.

After discharge from the department, the possibility of further patient’s monitoring, correction of therapy and outpatient consultations of the relevant specialists remains.