Sutter East Bay Neuroscience Center (SEBNC)

Advances in neurosurgery have brought hope and life to hundreds of patients with brain and spinal injuries or disease. The latest technology relieves patients of hours of surgery preparation, reduces the time a patient is under anesthesia, and greatly reduces cost and recovery times. “Interactive image-guided surgical equipment” allows a surgeon to perform intricate surgery with minimal invasion. Eden Medical Center’s Stealth Station Treatment Guidance Platform -- which operates much like virtual reality in planning and performing surgery of the brain, spine, ear, nose and throat -- puts advanced surgical tools in the hands of our experienced neurosurgeons.

This tool incorporates preoperative images, including MRI, CT, and functional imaging studies into the computers in the operating room. A hand held probe linked to the computer can be used to point anywhere on the patient's head or brain, with the corresponding area shown with great accuracy on a computer screen. Thus, there is no need to guess at the relationship between an area on or in the brain, inspected by sight and where that corresponds to the patient's preoperative images. Patients undergoing spine surgery benefit from image-guidance with the stealth station. In particular, use of navigation techniques can help the more precise placement of instruments into the spine. These metal tools are often of help in maximizing the results of spinal surgery so that patients can return to independent activity as quickly as possible.

The benefits of minimally-invasive, image-guided surgery for patients are phenomenal. Patients receive care close to home, in a warm and caring environment, without the added trauma of traveling long distances for surgical care at a university-affiliated teaching hospital. The surgical incision area is small, and the impact on healthy tissue is diminished -- resulting in less trauma, less pain and reduced exposure to infection. Patients are discovering they are healing faster, with greater comfort, and returning to home, work and play quickly -- with their hopes and dreams intact.

Eden Medical Center's neurosurgical team has treated thousands of patients and is led by neurosurgeons Lawrence Dickinson, M.D., Jeffrey Randall, M.D., and Ronnie Mimran, M.D., of Pacific Brain & Spine. A fourth neurosurgeon is joining their busy practice this year.