Conditions & Treatments

Developed by neurosurgeons, this resource provides patients and their families trustworthy information on a wide range of neurosurgical conditions and diseases. Learn about disease and injury risk factors, symptoms, diagnosis and both surgical and nonsurgical treatment options.

Select the treatment or condition you are interested in for more detailed information.

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Patient Content

Epilepsy: Electrocorticography (ECoG)

By:
  • AANS Neurosurgical Members
Last updated: July 3, 2024
If an epilepsy case is unresponsive to medications, there are alternative, surgical treatments that  may be an option. To determine this, the treating neurologist may obtain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) over prolonged periods […]
Patient Content

Epilepsy: Neuromodulation

By:
  • Julie G. Pilitsis, MD, PhDChair, Neuroscience & Experimental Therapeutics Professor, Neurosurgery and Neuroscience & Experimental Therapeutics Albany Medical College
  • Olga KhazenResearch Coordinator- Neuroscience & Experimental Therapeutics Albany Medical College
Last updated: April 15, 2024
Over the last decade, multiple surgical options have become available for patients with epilepsy that does not respond to medication.
Patient Content

Glioblastoma Multiforme

By:
  • Jigisha P Thakkar, MD
  • Pier Paolo Peruzzi, MD, PhD, FAANS
  • Vikram C Prabhu, MD, FAANS
Last updated: April 15, 2024
Glioblastoma (GBM), also referred to as a grade IV astrocytoma, is a fast-growing and aggressive brain tumor. It invades the nearby brain tissue, but generally does not spread to distant organs.
Patient Content

Gunshot Wound Head Trauma

By:
  • Silky Chotai, MD
  • Khoi D. Than, MD, FAANS
Last updated: April 15, 2024
Gunshot wounds to the head have become a leading cause of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in many urban areas in the U.S. due, in part, to a surge in gang violence and overall homicide rates.
Patient Content

Harold Marcus’ Patient Story

By:
  • AANS Neurosurgical Members
Last updated: July 3, 2024
Neurosurgeon: Roger Hartl, MD, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical College Patient: Harold F. Marcus, age 62, Lumbar Spinal Stenosis Like an estimated 400,000 other Americans, most over the age of 60, […]
Patient Content

Herniated Disc

By:
  • AANS
Last updated: July 17, 2024
A herniated disc (also called bulged, slipped or ruptured) is a fragment of the disc nucleus that is pushed out of the annulus, into the spinal canal through a tear or rupture in the annulus.
Patient Content

How Neurosurgeons Treat Chronic Pain

By:
  • AANS
Last updated: April 29, 2024
Pain is the body's mechanism of self-preservation. It acts as a warning to indicate that harm or damage is happening, or is about to happen, to tissues in our bodies.
Patient Content

Hydrocephalus

By:
  • Lawrence M. Shuer, MD, FAANS
  • Rut Thakkar
Last updated: June 26, 2024
Hydrocephalus is a condition in which excess cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) builds up within the fluid-containing cavities or ventricles of the brain.
Patient Content

Intracerebral Hemorrhage

By:
  • Neel T. Patel, MDis a neurosurgery resident at the Penn State College of Medicine at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Penn.
  • Scott D. Simon, MD, FAANSis an associate professor of neurosurgery at the Penn State College of Medicine at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Penn. He specializes in cerebrovascular and endovascular neurosurgery and his research interests include cerebrovascular device design and retro-viral delivered gene therapy for neural regeneration.
Last updated: April 8, 2024
Intracerebral hemorrhage (bleeding into the brain tissue) is the second most common cause of stroke (15-30% of strokes) and the most deadly.
Patient Content

Jody Bunzol’s Patient Story

By:
  • AANS
Last updated: April 26, 2024
At the age of 27, Jody Bunzol was diagnosed with a medical condition called Moyamoya disease.