BUILDING THE BEST Neurosurgery Services
PICTURED: Prof Ciaran Bolger
With the new facilities schedule to be completed this year it looks like the HMC is on track to become a leading provider of Neurosurgery services in Ireland.
PROF CIARAN BOLGER DISCUSSES HOW THE HMC IS COMMITTED TO BUILDING TOP FLIGHT NEUROSURGERY SERVICES BY INVESTING IN THE BEST FACILITIES POSSIBLE AND DEVELOPING A TEAM OF EXPERT NEUROSURGEONS TO DELIVER A WIDER RANGE OF TREATMENTS TO PATIENTS IN A MORE TIMELY FASHION THAN IS POSSIBLE IN THE PUBLIC HOSPITAL SECTOR.
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rofessor Ciaran Bolger is one of Ireland’s leading Neurosurgeons and he is currently treating patients at the HMC. Having trained in Dublin, Liverpool, Australia and America he spent a further 5 years as a consultant in Bristol before returning to Ireland in 2000. Now Professor of Clinical Neuroscience in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Prof Bolger sees a broad spectrum of neurological conditions at the HMC. As Prof Bolger explains: “I’m a neurosurgeon with a particular interest in spinal neurosurgery so I deal with spinal cord compression, nerve compression, spinal tumours that are pressing on the spinal cord and some brain surgery including brain tumours and vascular surgery.
ADVANCES IN SURGICAL TECHNIQUES The department has grown both in size and in the number of patients it sees, yearon-year. This development is helped by advances in neurosurgery, where surgeons can use considerably less invasive procedures than previously thus reducing down time for patients. “We provide minimally invasive decompression of the spine and minimally invasive stabilisation treatment for patients – such as putting in
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instrumentation and screws to stabilise the spine, often using microsurgery. In terms of treatment and patient recovery the vast majority of my patients would only be in hospital for one night, as opposed to a week if we were using conventional techniques. In addition the recovery time is reduced to two weeks with most back in work after four weeks,” according to Prof Bolger. The success of this department has led to increased demand for services this, in turn is driving the extension of its services. “At the HMC we most frequently treat spinal conditions and some brain conditions but we plan to expand this by having a group of us working there to offer the full range of neurosurgery treatments which are currently only available in the public hospital sector thereby offering a much needed private alternative. We hope that by developing the service we can move closer to what is available internationally,” says Prof Bolger.
A HIGHLY SKILLED TEAM There have been many developments at the HMC that have helped the department move closer to this idea. The addition of the CyberKnife is the first step towards treating more complex
Neurosurgery
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