Neurosurgery Department

FacultyServices Projects PublicationsResearch Staff Alumni

It was in the year 1976 that combined neurology and neurosurgery services started at SCTIMST as a single department having a total of 46 beds and 2 operation rooms. Dr. K.K Jain was Professor of Neurosurgery and Dr P.T Raman was the Professor of Neurology. Prof. George Mathew took over as Head of the Department in 1978 and he established it as an independent department. Though his main interest was spinal surgery, he can be credited with popularizing transsphenoidal pituitary surgery in India. Prof. D. Rout succeeded him in 1981.Under his stewardship, this department progressed to a center of excellence for cerebrovascular surgery and neurooncology. Neurosurgery department was shifted to newly constructed surgical block in 1984 having 44 beds including 12 bedded ICU with all modern facility and 3 well equipped operating rooms. Prof. R N Bhattacharya, who took over as head in 1998 and was instrumental in developing minimally invasive surgery. The department progressed gradually and the number of neurosurgical operations become almost doubled. Five additional beds were added to take the total number of beds to 49. A new well equipped state of art operating room was also commissioned in 2000. Surgery for epilepsy was started in 1995 and a comprehensive center for treatment of epilepsy was established later on. Dr Suresh Nair took over as head of the department in 2006. Under his guidance, surgery for skull base lesions got a momentum and the department has become a premier neurosurgical referral centre for cerebellopontine angle lesions especially for vestibular schwannomas. Functional and stereotactic neurosurgery was started with surgery for Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders in 1998. Neuroendoscopy got a boost after the successful conduct of a workshop by Prof. Perneczky in 1999. The current thrust areas include spinal instrumentation, surgery for stroke and minimally invasive neurosurgery.

The Neurosurgery Department has been recognized as a center for excellence for training of the overseas residents and junior consultants. Our department is an accredited centre for skull base surgery training by the World Federation of Neurological surgery Considering the necessity of subspecialisation in neurosurgery, a post doctoral fellowship course in cerebrovascular surgery and skull base surgery has been started and subsequently such fellowship will be introduced for the other subspecialities also. Department is aiming to established a state of art cadaver dissection laboratory, in the future with facilities for training for residents.

Statistics

Started in 1976

Current Head of the Department: Prof. S Nair

Number of Consultants: 8

Number of residents : 12 (four per year)

Number of beds: 50

Intensive care unit: 13 bedded

Number of dedicated operation theatres: 4

No. of Surgeries done /yr(only elective, no trauma) : 1350

Faculty
Facilities

Our operation theatres are well equipped and have state of the art devices including image guidance, streotaxy, high end microscopes, intraop electrophysiological monitoring devices, CUSA, pneumatic high speed drills and intraoperative ultrasound. We plan to increase beds strength further and add two more state of art operation rooms with intraoperative CT/MRI scan and image guided surgery. We are trying to procure a stereotactic radiosurgery unit.

Services
Cerebrovascular surgery
Skull Base surgery
Neurooncology
Epilepsy surgery
Surgery for Movement Disorder
Spinal instrumentation
Neuroendoscopy
Projects/Consultancies
Multicentric multinational randomised controlled surgical trial in intracerebral haemorrhage (STICH II), sponsored by stroke association and medical research council, University of New Castle, UK.
Status: ongoing
Principal International Investigator: Mr.Mendlow, Professor of Neurosurgery, Regional Neurosciences Centre, New Castle Upon Tyne, UK
Multinational clinical study to evaluate "Efficacy & Safety of AP 12009 in adult patients with recurrent or refractory anaplastic astrocytoma (WHO Grade 3) as compared to standared treatment with temozolamide or BCNU: A randomized, actively controlled, open label clinical phase III study, AP 12009-G005"
Status: will start in Q 3, 2008, after ethics committee approval
Sponsors: Anti Sense Pharma, GmbH, Regensburg, Germany
Phase III confirmatory randomised evaluation of convection enhanced delivery of IL 13 - PE38QQR compared to standard of care with survival endpoint in glioblastoma multiforme patients at first recurrence.
Status: will start in Q4 2008 after IEC approval
Sponsors: Neopharm,Inc, 101 Waukegan Road,Suite 970,Lake Bluff,IL ,USA.
Preclinical animal evaluation of decellularised bovine pericardium as Dura substitute.
Funding agency : TDF funded intramural project
Status: Ongoing
Development of Dura Substitute by electrospinning of e-caprolactone -co -lactide polymers.
Funding Agency: STEC, Department of Science and Technology, Kerala.
Isolation, characterization of glioma stem cells from different grades of glioma: correlation with microRNA profile, prognostic factors and treatment outcome
Funding agency: Department of Biotechnology, Government of India.
Publications (last 5 years)
  1. Petroclival meningiomas. S Nair, BRM Rao, G Menon, RN Bhattacharya. Progress in Clinical Neurosciences 2005; 19:79-100.
  2. Ophthalmic segment aneurysms S Nair, G Menon, HV Easwer, BRM Rao, BJ Rajesh, RN Bhattacharya. Indian J Cerebrovasc Surg 2005;1: 26- 35.
  3. Spontaneous intracerebral haemorrhage: Still a surgeon's dilemma. S Nair, G Menon, T Muthuretnam, Mathew Abraham, Mukund Prasad, BRM Rao, HV Easwer, BJ Rajesh, RN Bhattacharya. Indian Journal of Cerebrovascular Surgery 2005; 1:100-106.
  4. Management issues in bilateral vestibular schwannomas. S Nair, G Menon, T Muthuretnam, BRM Rao, BJ Rajesh, M Abraham, HV Easwer, M Prasad, RN Bhattacharya. Progress in Clinical Neurosciences, 2005; 20:69-82.
  5. Incidental intracranial aneurysm: People at risk and issues in management. Nair S, BRM Rao , G Menon. ,Easwer HV., RajeshB J. , Mathew A, Mukund P., Bhattacharya R N Indian journal of Cerebrovascular Surgery 2006 ; 2(1): 24-32.
  6. Diagnostic ambiguity in idiopathic thunderclap headache: Is neurovascularimaging warranted? S Nair, G Menon, BRM Rao. Indian Journal of cerebrovascular surgery 2006;2(1): 17-23
  7. Microsurgical removal of petroclival meningiomas - a critical review based on an institutional experience of 83 cases. S Nair, BRM Rao, G Menon Asian Journal of Neurosurgery 2007;1:16-29.
  8. Distal anterior cerebral artery aneurysms: Surgical management BRM Rao,RN Bhattacharya, S Nair, K Rajneesh, G Menon, BJ Rajesh, T Muthuretnam, HV Easwer, M Abraham. Indian J Cerebrovasc Surg 2005;1: 19-25.
  9. Basilar artery aneurysms RN Bhattacharya, HV Easwer, BJ Rajesh, S Nair, G Menon, BRM Rao, T Muthuretnam, M Abraham, K Sudish. Indian J Cerebrovasc Surg 2005;1: 6-14.
  10. Intracranial aneurysms in children and adolescents. G Menon, SV Furtado, S Nair, RN Bhattacharya, BRM Rao, HV Easwer, T Muthuretnam, A Mathew. Indian Journal of Cerebrovascular Surgery 2005; 1:80-84.
G.Publication in Textbooks
  1. Monopolar and Bipolar coagulators : S.Nair, R.Kachhara In : Textbook of Operative Neurosurgery Eds. R.Ramamurthi, K Sridhar, MC Vasudevan BI Publications, New Delhi, 2005, 59-61.
  2. Surgical Management of Arnold Chiari malformations. S.Nair In Textbook of Operative Neurosurgery Eds. R.Ramamurthi, K Sridhar, MC Vasudevan BI Publications, New Delhi, 2005, 951-961.
  3. Intramedullary spinal cord glial tumors: management philosophy and surgical outcome. S Nair, G Menon, BRM Rao, BJ Rajesh, T Muthuretnam, A Mathew, HV Easwer, RN Bhattacharya. In Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery and Multidisciplinary Neurotraumatology. Ed T Kanno & Y Kato, Springer-Verlag, Tokyo, 36-46,2006
  4. Spinal tumors. S Nair, G Menon, BRM Rao, M Abraham, H Easwer, Krishnakumar In Essential Practice of Neurosurgery Eds K Kalangu, Y Kato, G Dechambenot, Access Publishing Co Ltd, Nagoya, 985-979, 2009
Patents & Products
A hydrocephalus shunt system was developed in 1993 in collaboration with biotechnology department. TTK Company is commercially marketing this as Ceredrain. Indigenous Fibrin Glue has been developed in collaboration with biotechnology wing, and is due for market launch.
Burr hole buttons using Hydroxy apatite bone substitute too, has completed clinical trials and is already available in the market.
Future research areas include artificial dural substitutes, non invasive ICP monitoring devices.
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