Lurie Children’s neurosurgeon performs computer-guided radiofrequency ablation to decrease hypertonia in cerebral palsy

Jeffrey Raskin, MS, MD, a neurosurgeon at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Kids’s Hospital of Chicago, carried out the primary ever computer-guided radiofrequency ablation to lower extreme muscle tone (known as hypertonia) in a baby with cerebral palsy.

In hypertonia, muscle tissue are continually activated, which causes extreme ache and deformity within the bones and joints, and profoundly impacts the kid’s high quality of life. Medicines usually are not all the time efficient, and these sufferers don’t have another surgical choices.

Dr. Raskin’s revolutionary minimally invasive surgical process makes use of a pc system to precisely place electrode needles into the nerve roots that exit the backbone. Radiofrequency vitality (much like microwave warmth) is then delivered to disconnect the muscle from the mind and spinal wire, which successfully decreases the power of the nervous system to activate muscle tissue.

Whereas radiofrequency ablation has been used for many years for relieving ache, the process has not been tried beforehand for lowering tone in cerebral palsy.

Dr. Raskin reported his expertise with the primary affected person case within the journal Operative Neurosurgery. Now eight months after the process, the advantages are lasting, and the kid’s high quality of life is drastically improved.

We have to change the paradigm of how we look after sufferers with extreme hypertonia. To lower muscle tone, we have to exclude the dysfunctional nervous system, which is the primary driver of pathology. Radiofrequency ablation is a protected and efficient method that’s effectively tolerated, with sufferers going dwelling the subsequent day. Sufferers with extreme tone regardless of drugs are inspired to see a neurosurgeon to see if they’re candidates for this remedy.”

Dr. Jeffrey Raskin, MS, MD, Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgical procedure at Northwestern College Feinberg Faculty of Medication