Rounding at Rush

Rounding at Rush welcomes John O’Toole, MD, to the show to discuss spinal tumor care at RUSH University Medical Center. RUSH is known for its use of minimally invasive procedures, interdisciplinary nature that streamlines care and success in creating better quality of life outcomes for its patients.

Dr. O’Toole is a neurosurgeon in the RUSH University System for Health, specializing in spinal oncology, minimally invasive spine surgery, complex spinal reconstruction and spinal radiosurgery. He is the Co-Director of the Coleman Foundation Comprehensive Spine Tumor Clinic and a Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at RUSH Medical College.

“We reduce morbidity, recovery times and blood loss through the use of minimally invasive surgical techniques,” says Dr. O’Toole. “For the cancer population we treat, that’s incredibly important. These patients don’t have a lot of time to recover from major operations before they get on to radiation treatments and other systemic treatments for their cancer. We’ve been leaders in the use of these techniques, making a big difference in both the short-term and long-term outcomes for patients with spinal tumors.”

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Parikshit Sharma, MD, MPH, joins Rounding at Rush to discuss His bundle and conduction system pacing, which involves placing permanent leads anywhere along the AV conduction system to maintain biventricular pacing and synchrony.

Dr. Sharma is a cardiac electrophysiologist at RUSH University System for Health who specializes in managing rhythm disorders of the heart. He is the section chief of cardiac electrophysiology, the director of the electrophysiology lab and an associate professor of medicine at RUSH Medical College.

“We can decrease heart failure hospitalizations in patients with His bundle pacing compared to right ventricular pacing,” says Dr. Sharma. “And while right ventricular pacing can be associated with adverse clinical outcomes, such as cardiomyopathy, heart failure hospitalizations, atrial fibrillation and associated mortality, His bundle pacing can essentially prevent a lot of them from occurring.”

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https://cmetracker.net/RUSH/Publisher?page=pubOpen#/EventID/481815

Sepehr Sani, MD, joins Rounding at Rush to discuss MR-guided focused ultrasound, a safe, incisionless treatment designed to reduce hand tremor in patients with essential and parkinsonian tremor. It targets a specific area of the brain with high-intensity focused ultrasound, guided by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Dr. Sani is a neurosurgeon at RUSH University Medical Center and an associate professor of neurosurgery at RUSH Medical College. Among his many clinical interests, Sani focuses on deep brain stimulation, Parkinson's disease, essential tremor and vagal nerve stimulation.

“MR-guided focused ultrasound represents a paradigm shift,” says Dr. Sani. It is a “really life-changing treatment without having to have any anesthesia, without having to have a single incision … they literally walk in and walk out. In the neurosurgical realm, … to be able to offer a treatment to a patient without using a knife, is a first. It’s pretty amazing."

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