Neurosurgery

Presentation

Introduction

Since it was established, the Neurosurgery Department of the University Hospital of Bellvitge has been a model of Neurosurgery healthcare in Catalonia and Spain.

Right from the start, every effort has been made to improve basic conditions of neurosurgical practice, such as the standardisation of procedures and the improvement of techniques. Over recent years, efforts have focused on the creation of specific lines of work, many based on multi-disciplinary teams. This form of healthcare is fully in line with the vision of the HUB and the ICS and is closely linked to the field of clinical research and education.

These measures have a direct impact on the patient, allowing for increased indications, safer procedures, and more favourable prognoses in a highly complex medical speciality. The HUB-Neurosurgery HJ23 of Tarragona Extended Neurosurgery Department was recently created to optimise services and resources and be able to offer better, more complete healthcare to users in our region.

Related news

Relevant aspects

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Neuro-oncology

  • The main line of healthcare and research due to the volume of patients involved. It basically includes the treatment of glial tumors and brain metastases, but also other complex tumors in other locations. The cornerstone of this line of work is the Neuro-oncology Committee, which meets every week and is formed by neurosurgeons, neuro-oncologists, physicians, neuro-oncology radiation therapists, neuro-anatomopathologists and neuroradiologists.
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Neurovascular

  • Neurovascular Pathology also plays an important role in our Department, as it is one of the most productive of the whole of Spain in this field. Surgery involving complex aneurysms, AVMs and Cavernomas in areas of highly functional eloquence, cerebral by pass, using intraoperative neuromonitoring and brain mapping techniques.
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Skull Base and Hypophysis

  • Another type of pathology with a significant number of cases. Exeresis of skull base tumors, basically meningiomas, neurinomas or epidermoid cysts of the cerebellopontine angle. In late 2013, transnasal neuroendoscopy became part of the Department’s activities for the resection of hypophyseal tumors.
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Functional Neurosurgery

  • There are three types of pathology within Functional Neurosurgery: the treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), the treatment of movement disorders (Parkinson’s disease and dystonias), and the treatment of pain. The treatment of OCD is provided alongside a line of work with Psychiatry, and our hospital is one of the two hospitals in Spain where the surgical treatment of this psychiatric disease is performed.
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Epilepsy

  • The creation of the Epilepsy Unit has led to the systematisation of surgical treatment in epilepsy patients. The unit is made up of Neurologists, Neurosurgeons, Nueropsychologists and Neurophysiologists.
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Spinal Column

  • A large pathology group. Degenerative spinal and cervical, dorsal and lumbar tumor surgery, applying open surgery and minimally invasive surgery techniques, 360º lumbar spinal fusion. Complex approaches to vertebral tumors, especially metastases.
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Cerebrospinal Fluid

  • Another pathology with high volume due to the increase in the geriatric population with chronic adult-onset hydrocephalus. In the case of hydrocephalus, we have all the forms of diagnosis and treatment for acute, chronic, obstructive or communicating, with ventricular bypass valves or endoscopic ventricular fenestrations. We also include treatment of pseudotumor cerebri and Chiari malformations I
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Cranioencephalic Traumatism (TBI)

  • Treatment of patients with cranioencephalic traumatism makes up a significant part of the emergency surgery practised in our Department, including the evacuation of intracranial haematoma and decompressive craniectomies.

Research

Lines of research

  • In the field of functional Neuro-oncology, we work closely with the Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, sharing different brain mapping projects, primarily involving language.
  • We take part in international clinical trials in relation to Neurofunctional Pathology, especially in the treatment of Compulsive Obsessive Disorder.
  • In Vascular Neurosurgery, different clinical research projects are underway regarding brain aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, cerebral by pass and cavernomas, and different international clinical trials.
  • In terms of Skull Base Surgery, Epilepsy Surgery, Neurofunctional Pathology, Hydrocephalus, Cranioencephalic Traumatism and Spinal Pathology, we are conducting different clinical studies and have recently taken part in different multicentric studies and international clinical trials.

Main Publications 

Education

Degree education

  • Our Department is currently involved in degree education at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Barcelona on the Bellvitge Campus, with two Associate Medical Professors teaching Neurosurgery (A. Gabarrós and A. Torres) and one Associate Professor teaching Anatomy (A. Fernández Coello). All the professionals in the department also take part in the internships of Medicine students from the Campus and international students who rotate through our Department. Post-graduate training corresponding to Neurosurgery residents is also provided. We currently have one resident a year and the HUB Neurosurgery Department is one of the most sought-after places for this speciality in the whole of Spain.
  • We also offer post-graduate education to rotating residents from other specialities, such as Neurology and Orthopaedic Surgery, and Neurosurgery residents from other hospitals in Spain and abroad wanting to intern in our Hospital. We also organise and take part as professors in many different courses and master’s degrees every year.

Location

Main Building at Bellvitge University Hospital

c/ Feixa Llarga, sn.

08907 L’Hospitalet de Llobregat. Barcelona

Floor 9

Telephone number 93 260 76 28