About the Division of Neurosurgery
The Division of Neurosurgery offers a full range of inpatient and outpatient services to infants, children and adolescents. Particular emphasis is placed on treating children with brain tumors, epilepsy, cervical spinal trauma, and other conditions affecting the brain and spine such as cerebral palsy.
As part of our Neuroscience Center, our world-renowned specialists in neurosurgery collaborate with neurology specialists to provide a precise diagnosis, individualized clinical care, and cutting-edge surgical treatment, and to achieve groundbreaking discoveries. Our divisions of Neurology and Neurosurgery are consistently ranked among the top 10 pediatric programs in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.
A multidisciplinary Neuro-oncology Program is active in the management of pediatric brain tumors. All diagnostic modalities are available for the investigation of lesions of the brain, including CT scanning, magnetic resonance imaging, functional MRI and spectroscopy. Access to interventional services and focused radiation therapy techniques is also available through the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center.
Our researchers are actively involved in ongoing pediatric brain tumor research through the Childhood Brain Tumor Tissue Consortium (CBTTC), a collaborative multi-institutional cooperative research program dedicated to the study of childhood brain tumors. We also have a large clinical research program in pediatric head injuries.
Watch the video to learn more about CHOP's pediatric neurosurgeons and the care available to your child.
Other programs and services
Our pediatric neurosurgeons are embedded in many multidisciplinary programs and clinics across the hospital that focus on providing specialized care to infants, children and teens with specific conditions. Some examples of diagnoses and clinics where we provide dedicated neurosurgery services include:
- The Pediatric Epilepsy Program provides multidisciplinary care for children with refractory or intractable seizures, including advanced diagnosis and evaluation services, medical therapy and the full range of epilepsy surgery procedures.
- A selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) and baclofen pump program for children with cerebral palsy or other conditions associated with spasticity is available for evaluation, surgery and rehabilitation.
- Nasal endoscopic neurosurgery (endonasal surgery): Pediatric neurosurgeons can use tools called endoscopes to remove certain types of tumors (skull base tumors) through the nose, a more direct and less invasive approach to treating these tumors.
- Partnering with the Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment, our neurosurgeons provide care for fetuses with a suspected congenital malformation involving the brain and spine. For example, children diagnosed before birth with myelomeningocele, the most severe form of spina bifida, have access to multidisciplinary care here at CHOP from the time of prenatal diagnosis, fetal surgery and delivery, through long term follow-up in CHOP's Spina Bifida Program.
