Pennsylvania Neurosurgery at Penn Highlands

Neurologists typically diagnose and provide medications for brain conditions and movement disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease. Neurologists also provide care for brain injuries. Neurologists often refer patients to neurosurgeons for interventional treatment. Neurosurgeons provide interventional treatments such as pain relief procedures, implanted devices, and surgery to treat problems in the brain, spine and nervous system

Recovery from spinal surgery depends on the type of surgery. For minimally invasive procedures, recovery can be as short as 4-6 weeks. For open, traditional procedures, it may take 4-6 months and up to even a year for your body to heal. It’s important to remember that every patient and procedure is different. You should discuss spine surgery recovery times with your Pennsylvania neurosurgery team.

Any surgery carries risks, including infection, bleeding, continued pain, and in rare cases, death. It’s important for you to weigh the benefits of spinal surgery with any potential risks. At Penn Highlands Neurosurgery, we only recommend surgery when more conversative treatment options are not effective. Only one in 15 patients with back or neck pain will benefit from surgery. The other 14, however, often need ongoing Pennsylvania neurosurgery care that will relieve pain so that they can continue to work and enjoy their life.

Craniotomy is the most common type of brain surgery performed by Pennsylvania hospital neurosurgery experts. This procedure is used while providing treatment for a variety of conditions, including brain tumors, cancer, stroke, and more.

Surgery of any type has risk, such as bleeding and infection. However, these risks are typically quite low and should be weighed against the benefit of the surgery. For brain surgery, additional risks can include swelling, stroke, coma, seizures, problems with memory, speech, balance or other functions, headache, and, in rare occasions, death. Most of these issues have very low risk of occurring and your Pennsylvania neurosurgeon will discuss these with you to ensure you are well informed and comfortable with having surgery.

Penn Highlands Brain and Spine Center in DuBois, PA, and our central Pennsylvania neurosurgery clinics offer many types of nonsurgical procedures to relieve pain, avoiding the need for opioids or other pain medications. Pain procedures include:

• Injections and nerve blocks: Injections of steroids into the spine or surrounding area can relieve pain in many patients for months, often allowing them to take other measures such as physical therapy or weight loss to bring more permanent relief. Before making an injection, we use topical anesthetics and guide the injection with X-ray or ultrasound to ensure precision.
• Ablation: Radiofrequency ablation, also called rhizotomy, is a minimally invasive procedure that uses heat to destroy nerve endings that are transmitting pain signals to the brain. This procedure is most commonly used to treat chronic pain caused by arthritis in the spine. Up to 80 percent of patients experience reduced or no pain for upward of two years after this procedure.
• Spinal cord stimulation: This implanted device blocks pain signals from reaching the brain by sending mild electrical pulses to the spinal cord. Spinal cord stimulation is often used to control the worst cases of pain. It also is used to relieve pain in patients with diabetic neuropathy.