What you need to know
Jersey Shore University Medical Center recently opened the Center for Advanced Skull Base Surgery, providing treatment for adults and children with tumors and other abnormalities of the cranial base.
The program’s team of specially trained and experienced surgeons work collaboratively to provide patients with individualized treatments plans, designed to preserve function, improve survival, and restore patients to their normal lifestyles as quickly and safely as possible.
The accomplished team is comprised of fellowship-trained adult and pediatric neurosurgeons, fellowship-trained skull base otolaryngologists (ENT) and craniofacial plastic surgeons, ophthalmologists and oculoplastic surgeons, as well as medical neuro-oncologists, radiation oncologists, epileptologists, intensivists, neuro-radiologists, neuro-pathologists, and palliative medicine physicians.
Skull base tumors can be benign or malignant. The skull base team works in concert with all of the patient’s physicians, including oncologists, to deliver optimal treatment.
Examples of diseases that may be treated include:
- Meningiomas
- Schwannomas
- Brain aneurysms and other blood vessel malformations
- Cysts
- Growths caused by infections
- Pituitary gland tumors
- Metastatic tumors
- Chordomas
- Craniopharyngiomas, which are rare tumors that grow near the pituitary gland, typically affecting children but can also affect adults.
The Center for Advanced Skull Base Surgery is part of The Neuroscience Institute at the academic medical center, led by Chairman Alan Colicchio, M.D. Under Dr. Colicchio’s leadership, the Center is able to offer a complete lineup of neuroscience services for spine injuries, concussion, epilepsy, brain tumors, movement disorders, memory and more, including Monmouth and Ocean counties’ only Stroke Rescue Center.