Organization - Neurosurgery Service

The Neurosurgery Service is a surgical service that is highly specialized in complex diseases. Each professional focuses on one type of surgery in order to improve the results of the treatment. The Service works in coordination with the following units and healthcare areas:

One of its main areas of care is Skull Base Surgery.

The Service carries out its activity in two highly specialized operating theatres. One of them is one of the most modern at an international level. It has several highly complex technological devices.

• The Intraoperative Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) imaging device. It improves the resection of brain tumours, pituitary gland tumours and cavernomas during surgery. Thanks to this technology, the surgeon can tell whether the procedure has been effective and to what extent, and can thus avoid the patient having more operations in the future.
• O-arm. This is an intraoperative CT imaging system that produces 2D and 3D intraoperative images of the patient’s anatomy in real time. It guides medical professionals during electrode placement in Surgery for Epilepsy and Parkinson’s Disease, and is also used for the guidance of instrumentation placement in Spinal Surgery and Vascular Surgery.
• Neuronavigation. Neuronavigation allows for the advance planning of surgery and the transfer of this planning to the operating theatre. It also allows for the creation of 3D images of the brain during the operation and the location of lesions or the area that is being operated on at all times.
• Robotic visualization platform (KINEVO). Robotic movements improve image quality and precision in microscopically controlled surgery. There is also a built-in Exoscope (KIVO) in the device.

This technology makes it possible to perform technical surgery within the context of minimally invasive surgery (approaching the brain through small incisions or natural orifices). This type of surgery means that the postoperative period is more confortable and there are fewer complications. Examples of this new surgical concept are endoscopic surgery through the nose for skull base or pituitary tumours and percutaneous instrumentation in spinal disease.

The Service focuses on:

• Brain Tumour Surgery
• Pituitary Tumours
• Spinal Surgery
• Hydrocephalus
• Parkinson's Disease and Epilepsy
• Surgery for Aneurysms and Vascular Malformations

The Neurosurgery Service is a Spanish national referral centre for Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy surgery and is one of the referral hospitals for neurovascular disease, which participate in the weekend out-of-hours subarachnoid haemorrhage treatment in Catalonia.

The Service has two operating theatres with state-of-the-art technology: one of the operating theatres has intraoperative MRI and fluoroscopy with 3D reconstruction (O-Arm), and the other is the Optimus operating theatre; one of the most advanced operating theatres in the world, equipped with 5G technology.