Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience News Archive Featured in the Media JeffNEWS

With the transition now complete, the Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience (JHN) of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia is not only a dedicated neuroscience hospital that is home to one of the nation’s busiest neurosurgery programs, but it is a place where basic science discoveries and clinical expertise in the neurosciences come together.

JHN was created in November 2000 when Thomas Jefferson University purchased the Wills Eye Hospital building at 9th and Walnut Streets, beginning a transition of its neuroscience program to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Jefferson assumed sole operation of the Jefferson-Wills Neurosurgery Program.

Today, with the transition completed, Jefferson’s comprehensive neuroscience program – housed in the now-refitted former Wills Eye Hospital building – includes leading programs and centers in both the Departments of Neurosurgery and Neurology at Jefferson Medical College and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, and a dizzying array of new technology.

At JHN’s Acute Stoke Center, for example, neurologists, frequently in collaboration with cerebrovascular surgeons, continue to be among the best in the nation in treating and preventing stroke. Neurologists at Jefferson’s internationally recognized Comprehensive Epilepsy Center evaluate more than 100 patients a year for surgery, placing it among the largest programs in the country. At JHN’s Functional Neurosurgery and Neuroimplantation Center, physicians have pioneered techniques using electrical stimulation to treat chronic pain, epilepsy and various movement disorders.

Neurosurgeons at JHN employ the most comprehensive approaches to cerebrovascular disease, cancer and the treatment and prevention of stroke. Taking advantage of JHN’s available advanced technology – including specialized Interventional Neuroradiology Suites, and the region’s first Gamma Knife and dedicated linear accelerator – they are using endovascular embolization techniques to treat aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) and stereotactic radiosurgery to “surgically” treat dangerous brain AVMs and tumors.

“The program treats the largest volume of aneurysms, brain AVMs and carotid angioplasty and stenting for carotid and intracranial occlusive disease in the nation,” says Robert H. Rosenwasser, M.D., professor and chair of neurosurgery at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

Neurosurgeons at JHN treat more than half of all patients with brain tumors in the Philadelphia region, and were the first in the region to perform the “coiling” procedure to treat patients with brain aneurysms.

JHN neurosurgeons and radiation oncologists are using Novalis Shaped Beam Surgery – the most advanced radiation technology available – to treat a wide range of tumors in the brain and spine, curing tumors that they couldn’t treat before, including meningiomas, pituitary tumors, recurrent brain tumors, spine tumors, and acoustic tumors, among others. The new technology, which can mold radiation beams to fit the exact size and shape of a tumor, is available now only at Jefferson in the Delaware Valley and in a small number of medical centers in the nation.

While treating patients often takes center stage at JHN, basic research continues to be a strength. At Thomas Jefferson University’s Farber Institute for Neurosciences, scientists focus on basic research into the underlying causes of degenerative nervous system diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and multiple sclerosis.

Scientists at the Institute, for example, are in the initial stages of developing an Alzheimer’s vaccine and are participating in the first clinical trials in North America testing new drugs aimed at slowing the rate of cognitive decline in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.

Editor’s Note: Jefferson University Hospital is holding an open house in the newly designed Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience, 9th and Walnut Streets, Philadelphia, on Wednesday, November 3, 2004, 4 to 7 p.m. Tours of the facility, including opportunities to see the Novalis Shaped Beam Surgery Suite, Interventional Neuroradiology Suites and the region’s first Gamma Knife, will be available.