Southern Hospital succeeds in brain procedure

By Anne Lautzenheiser
Published on Monday, July 2, 2007 9:27 AM CDT

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St. Tammany News

A surgeon at Southern Surgical Hospital has successfully performed an operation known as microvascular decompression. It is the first time the procedure has been performed at the facility.

Also known as the Jannetta procedure, the surgery is used to treat a cranial nerve disorder called Trigeminal Neuralgia or Tic Douloureaux, characterized by sudden, intense "shock-like" facial pain. The pain is triggered by touch, sound or movement, and is thought to affect as many as five persons per 100,000.

Dr. Donald Dietze performed the procedure, which involves opening the skull near the ear and carefully repositioning the blood vessel that is pressing on the trigeminal nerve. A small piece of Teflon felt is then inserted to prevent the nerve from becoming compressed again.

The procedure was first devised in the 1960s by Dr. Peter Jannetta, a neurosurgeon at the University of Pittsburgh. It has been heralded as one of the most effective long-term treatments of the disorder.

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1 comment(s)

Richard Schroeder wrote on May 28, 2008 8:46 PM:

" hi there, me again. Just collecting news i can use, that's all, carry on. "

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