Adult Services, Neuroscience

A team approach to brain tumor care

As a neurosurgeon, the traditional way of managing patients was straightforward: Did they need surgery or not? Patients who didn’t need surgery usually were referred to an oncologist or another specialist, who took over their care. From there, patients might be referred, again, to another physician, or to a physical therapist or speech pathologist. At…

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Adult Services, Neuroscience

Radial approach: The future of endovascular surgery

Cardiologists have used the radial approach for years. Now, endovascular neurosurgeons are discovering this approach as a better way to treat aneurysm and stroke. It’s more complex, but the benefits are worth it. Using the radial artery, rather than the femoral artery, means most patients recover faster and the procedure is significantly more comfortable. There’s…

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Adult Services, Case Study, Neuroscience

Brain tumor study: Successful laser ablation of thalamic tumor

The patient An 18-year-old man initially presented with the incidental finding five years earlier of a lesion in the left thalamus. He was followed with stable surveillance imaging until 2017 when the lesion started to enlarge. He underwent a stereotactic biopsy confirming juvenile pilocytic astrocytoma. The challenge Juvenile pilocytic astrocytomas are typically benign, well-defined tumors…

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Adult Services, Neuroscience

Local family donates $1 million to support multiple sclerosis care

When David C. Hussung’s mom, Beth, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in the early 1970s, there was very little local support to treat the disease. Thanks to David and his wife Rebekah’s $1 million donation to the Norton Healthcare Foundation, the newly named Hussung Family Multiple Sclerosis Center will provide patients with the latest…

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Adult Services, Neuroscience

Stereotactic radiosurgery offers noninvasive brain tumor treatment

Gamma Knife, CyberKnife, and TrueBeam may sounds like superheroes, but they are actually tools for treating brain tumors. These three machines are used for stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), a non-surgical treatment option that uses high doses of precisely focused radiation beams to destroy cancer cells. What is Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS)? Older versions of radiation therapy cast…

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Adult Services, Medical Group

April 2021 Norton Medical Group new providers

Rinit H. Pancholi, M.D. Family Medicine Amber Fortuna, PA-C Hospital Medicine Claire Watkins, PA-C Orthopedic Surgery Meaghan E. Baumgardner, APRN Pulmonology Liduvina I. Portillo, APRN Family Medicine Jacqueline Russ, APRN Urogynecology Victoria Spreitler, APRN Urgent Care Jenny R. Hughes, LCSW Behavioral Medicine

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Adult Services, Obstetrics

The latest in symptoms and treatments in menopause

Perimenopause brings vast changes to a person’s life that can begin months or years before menopause. This transition is in some ways more difficult due to the dramatic fluctuations in the reproductive hormone levels during perimenopause. During this time, reproductive hormones are sometimes underproduced and sometimes overproduced as opposed to menopause when the reproductive hormones…

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Adult Services, Neuroscience

Stroke summary: Patient home four days after mechanical thrombectomy; full recovery

Shervin R. Dashti, M.D., Ph.D., was able to remove a clot from the patient’s left middle cerebral artery, which was the cause of the patient’s stroke symptoms. Incident details: 75-year-old female Arrived at Norton Brownsboro Hospital 10 p.m. Norton Neuroscience Institute physicians: Mohammad S. Alsorogi, M.D., vascular stroke neurologist; Shervin R. Dashti M.D., Ph.D., neurosurgeon…

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Adult Services, Neuroscience

Norton Neuroscience Institute Memory Center offers multidisciplinary care and resources

The new Norton Neuroscience Institute Memory Center provides multidisciplinary care to patients with memory impairment and their families. Leading the care team at the multidisciplinary center are neurologist Gregory Cooper, M.D., Ph.D., and geriatrician Rachel N. Hart, D.O. “One of the benefits of the program like the one we’re creating is that we now become…

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Adult Services, Oncology/Hematology, Research

Study finds low pain in breast cancer patients treated with palbociclib

Patients with advanced/unresectable or metastatic breast cancer treated with palbociclib combination therapy experienced low levels of baseline pain and fatigue, a recent study found. The study is apparently one of the first outside a clinical trial to evaluate the day-to-day effects of advanced/unresectable or metastatic breast cancer and its treatment along with the effects of…

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Adult Services, Obstetrics

Understanding menopause’s broad reach and responding to its many symptoms

Menopause affects bone health and sexual health. It can affect mood and emotional well-being, sleep and weight. It also can increase the risks for different cancers or for falls. The average person reaches menopause at age 51 or 52, meaning more than 40 million people in the United States are experiencing menopause. Menopause is tough…

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Adult Services, Obstetrics, Orthopedics

Preventing fractures in postmenopausal patients

Bone health often is overlooked and undertreated in postmenopausal patients, even though appropriate management is critical to lower the risk of fracture and potentially catastrophic falls. Estrogen protects bones by inhibiting osteoclast cells, which break down bone. With menopause and lower estrogen levels, bone mass starts declining. A person can lose up to 20% of…

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