Neurosurgery Department

Our neurosurgeons are developing and applying minimally invasive approaches to treating brain, spine and skull base tumors. These procedures produce optimal oncological outcomes and generally result in shorter hospital stays, less pain, quicker recoveries and less disruption to radiation or chemotherapy, compared to conventional surgery. They can provide an alternative for patients who are not good candidates for conventional surgery or have an inoperable tumor. Our minimally invasive treatments include:

With few or no incisions, the surgeon uses an endoscope to remove the tumors in the skull base and brain working via the nasal cavity and without making a large facial incision. The endoscopic approach can provide a better view of and access to hard-to-reach tumors at the base of the skull – and therefore, more effective removal of the tumor and with less morbidity than alternative approaches. Tumors treated with this approach include: meningiomas, chondrosarcomas, chordomas, carcinomas, sarcomas and many others.

Laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) is a treatment performed by inserting a probe into the tumor and heating it to temperatures high enough to kill the tumor. The probe is placed using advanced computer imaging techniques. The surgeon monitors the heat levels through real-time MRI thermography (in our Brainsuite®) and precisely controls the thermal damage to just the tumor.

• Brain Tumors: Laser ablation provides an option for some patients with hard-to-reach, deep-seated or irregularly shaped brain tumors, including gliomas and metastases. It can also help patients who do not respond to radiation, cannot receive any more radiation or have developed radiation necrosis.
• Spine Tumors: Claudio Tatsui, M.D., has pioneered the use of laser ablation for spine tumors. MD Anderson is the first in the world to use this technique for metastatic spine tumors. Some spine tumors are not amenable to conventional surgical techniques and laser ablation offers another option. Most patients have a one or two-day hospital stay and little to no disruption to other treatments.

Minimally invasive spinal stabilization is done through one or more half-inch incisions, instead of one large incision and is used for traditional spinal stabilization. This technique is associated with less intraoperative blood loss, lower incidence of infection; the hospital stay is shorter and the functional recovery is faster.