Multidisciplinary Treatment for Skull Base Disease
The Skull Base Center at Baylor University Medical Center is one of the few places in Texas that offers comprehensive treatment for the large variety of often complex conditions and tumors in and around the various compartments of the skull base.
Priorities of the Skull Base Center:
- Cure or control of the disease
- Minimally invasive treatment
- Preservation of function
- Quality of life
A commitment to minimally invasive surgery has allowed the creation of surgical techniques that help achieve the goals of preserving function and maximizing the quality of life for patients.
Comprehensive services through the Skull Base Center:
Numerous departments and services at Baylor University Medical Center support the Skull Base Center, allowing comprehensive evaluation and care in the diagnosis and treatment of skull base disease:
- Endocrinología
- Head and Neck Oncology
- Oncologia medica
- Neurología
- Neuroradiología
- Neurocirugía
- Neurological Rehabilitation (physiatry)
- Otolaryngology (head and neck surgery)
- Pathology
- Radiación Oncológica
- Speech (swallowing therapy)
Programas
- Acoustic Neurinoma Program
- Chiari Malformation Program
- Chordoma / chondrosarcoma Program
- CSF Leak Program
- Endonasal Endoscopic Surgery Program
- Exophthalmos Program
- Glomus / paraganglioma Program
- Head and Neck Tumor Program
- Meningioma Program
- Occipital Cervical Program (Rheumatoid Arthritis)
- Orbital Tumor Program
- Pituitary Tumor Program
- Trigeminal Neuralgia Program
Opciones de tratamiento
Treatment recommendations are made after careful analysis of radiological data; location and type of lesion; and evaluation of each patient’s unique health profile, needs and expectation. The treatment may include one or more of the following modalities:
Interventional Neuroradiology
In selected cases, the interventional neuroradiology team at Baylor University Medical Center provides angiographic preoperative evaluation of the feeding vessels to lesions, allowing more accurate surgical planning.
In some cases, tumors with high vascularity are embolized preoperatively, allowing safer surgical resection of the tumor and less blood loss.
Patients with cerebral aneurysms are evaluated by a neurosurgeon and an interventional neuroradiologist to determine the most effective treatment modality for each patient.
Treatment for cerebral aneurysms includes intravascular packing and obliteration of the aneurysm with flexible coil or craniotomy and clipping of the aneurysm.
At the Skull Base Center preference is given, whenever possible, to intravascular treatment of cerebral aneurysms, avoiding craniotomy and brain manipulation.
Skull Base Surgery
When surgery is necessary, preference is given to the use of minimally invasive techniques, including:
- Bi-directional approach
- Endoscopic-assisted microneurosurgery
- Focused skull base approaches
- Transfacial approach
- Transnasal endoscopic approach
- Trans-facial and bidirectional approaches
- Facial degloving
- Head and neck approaches
- Reconstruction