Some hopeful findings
Treatment
When patients present with recurrent hemorrhage, progressive neurologic deterioration, or intractable epilepsy, then treatment in the form of surgery should be considered. The decision to operate on a patient with a cavernous malformation must be made based on the exact location of the lesion and its surgical accessibility.
By and large surgery offers an excellent option in terms of complete excision of lesion with stabilization of symptoms. Even seemingly deep- seated lesions can be reached using currently available stereotactic techniques. Thus, a relatively small lesion deep in the hemisphere can be reached through a small (1 cm or less) cortisectomy.
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Robert F. Spetzler, MD, FACS
Director, Barrow Neurological Institute
J. N. Harber Chair of Neurological Surgery
Chair, Division of Neurological Surgery
Director, Neurological Research
Dr. Robert Spetzler is a world-renowned neurosurgeon who specializes in cerebrovascular disease and skull base tumors. He has been involved in pioneering the technique of hypothermia and cardiac arrest for the treatment of difficult brain lesions. He has been honored many times by professional societies, including the American College of Surgeons and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. In 1994 Dr. Spetzler was chosen to be the Honored Guest of Congress of Neurological Surgeons. At age 49 he was the youngest recipient of this prestigious honor.
Dr. Spetzler was born in Stierhoefstetten, Germany, and moved to the United States at the age of 11. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, and his M.D. from Northwestern Medical School, Chicago, Illinois. His postgraduate training was completed at Wesley Memorial Hospital–Northwestern in Chicago, Illinois. He completed a residency in neurosurgery at the University of California, San Francisco. He received board certification in September 1979 from the American Board of Neurological Surgery.
In 1983 Dr. Spetzler left his position as Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, to assume the Chair in the Division of Neurological Surgery at Barrow. He has been the Director of Barrow since 1986. He is also a Professor of Surgery, Section of Neurosurgery, at University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson, Arizona.
Dr. Spetzler has published more than 300 articles and 180 book chapters in the neuroscience literature. He has co-edited a number of neurosurgical textbooks, including the Color Atlas of Microneurosurgery. He is on the review board of several neuroscience journals and is Editor-in-Chief of the Barrow Quarterly and Skull Base: An Interdisciplinary Approach.