The department of Neurosurgery is concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of disorders affecting the Brain, Peripheral Nerves and the Spine. Its range of services includes the Brain surgeries that vary from the intracranial tumours, paediatric surgery, epilepsy surgery, skull base surgery, endoscopic surgery to hydrocephalus surgery. Amongst the spine surgeries; the cervical and lumbar disc surgeries, surgeries for spine tumours, degenerative spine surgeries, spinal injuries and fractures and the image guided and key hole surgeries are being performed.
Deep brain stimulation
Deep brain stimulation involves implanting the electrodes within certain areas of your brain. These electrodes produce the electrical impulses which regulate abnormal impulses. Or, the electrical impulses can affect certain cells and chemicals within the brain. The amount of stimulation in the deep brain stimulation is controlled by a pacemaker-like device placed under the skin in your upper chest. A wire traveling under your skin will be connecting this device to the electrodes in your brain.
Deep brain stimulation is used to treat a number of neurological conditions, such as:
- Essential tremor
- Dystonia
- Parkinson’s disease
Deep brain stimulation is also being studied as a treatment for epilepsy, Tourette syndrome, cluster headaches, major depression and chronic pain. Many candidates for the deep brain stimulation are participants in the clinical trials.
Diskectomy
Diskectomy is a surgical procedure to remove the damaged portion of a herniated disk in your spine. A herniated disk can irritate or compress the nearby nerves causing numbness, pain or weakness. These symptoms can affect your neck as well as back or may radiate down your arms or legs.
Diskectomy works best on radiating symptoms and it is less helpful for actual back pain or neck pain. Most people having the back pain or neck pain will find relief with more-conservative treatments, such as physical therapy or the pain medications.
Your doctor may suggest diskectomy if the conservative, nonsurgical treatments haven’t worked or if their symptoms have worsened. There are several ways to perform a diskectomy. Many surgeons will now prefer the minimally invasive discectomy that uses small incisions and a tiny video camera for viewing.
Laminectomy
Laminectomy is a surgery creating space by removing the lamina-the back part of the vertebra covering your spinal canal. Also known as decompression surgery, it enlarges your spinal canal to relieve the pressure on the spinal cord or nerves.
Most commonly, this pressure is caused by the bony overgrowths within the spinal canal occurring in people having arthritis in their spines.
Generally, the laminectomy is used only when more-conservative treatments such as injections, medication or physical therapy have failed to relieve the symptoms. It may also be recommended if symptoms are severe or worsening dramatically.
Lumbar puncture (spinal tap)
Lumbar puncture (spinal tap) is performed in your lower back, in the lumbar region. During lumbar puncture, a needle will be inserted between two lumbar bones (vertebrae) for removing a sample of cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord for protection from injury.
A lumbar puncture can help to diagnose serious infections, such as meningitis; or cancers of the brain or spinal cord and other disorders of the central nervous system, such as Guillain-Barre syndrome and multiple sclerosis. Sometimes doctors use lumbar puncture for injecting thes anesthetic medications or chemotherapy drugs into the cerebrospinal fluid.
Spinal fusion
Spinal fusion is surgery to permanently connected to two or more vertebrae in your spine, by eliminating motion between them.
Spinal fusion involves techniques that are designed to mimic the normal healing process of broken bones. Your surgeon places bone or a bone-like material within the space between two spinal vertebrae. Metal plates, screws and rods will be used to hold the vertebrae together, so they that it heal into one solid unit.
Since spinal fusion surgery immobilizes parts of your spine, it will change the way your spine can move and places additional stress and strain on the vertebrae above as well as below the fused portion. It may increase the rate at which those areas of your spine degenerate.
Vagus nerve stimulation
Vagus nerve stimulation is a procedure for stimulating the vagus nerve with the electrical impulses. It can be used to treat epilepsy when other treatments haven’t worked and also a treatment for depression. It’s being studied for conditions such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and migraine.
There’s one vagus nerve on each side of your body, which runs from your brain stem through the neck to your chest and abdomen.
With vagus nerve stimulation, a device will be surgically implanted under the skin on your chest. A wire will be threaded under your skin that will connect the device to the left vagus nerve. When activated, the device sends electrical signals along the vagus nerve to your brainstem, which then sends signals to certain areas in your brain.