Dr. Robert Solomon (left) with Dr. Michael Sisti

From right to left, Dr. Michael Kaiser, Dr. Christopher Winfree, & Dr. Robert Solomon

More than 90 members of our staff attended our Holiday party this year at  Dylan Prime restaurant in New York City.

Everyone enjoyed the opportunity to relax in good company and to celebrate all the years’ achievements.

Our webmaster Greta Perovic did a wonderful job organizing the event. Everyone had a ball.

Here’s to another year!

Dr. Anthony D'Ambrosio (seated in white)

There he got to help test participants’ balance and grip strength. The tests were part of an interactive display developed by the NASS Exercise Committee to demonstrate how functional tests like these can be used to objectively assess patients with back and neck pain.

Pain can be highly subjective and clinicians strive to use objective measures in order to understand how to best treat their patients. The results can also be used as bench marks to show improvement. As decreased balance has been associated with chronic low back pain and decreased grip strength has been associated with chronic neck pain, these are two useful tests.

Balance was tested by timing participants for up to 30 seconds as they stood on one foot with their arms crossed over their chest. Participants were graded based on how many seconds they could remain on one foot. If they could stand the whole 30 seconds they were then asked to repeat the test with their eyes closed.

Grip strength was tested using a hand held dynomometer. This is a portable hand-held device that can measure strength in Newtons, pounds, or kilograms. The test is performed with the elbow bent to 90 degrees and held close to the body. The results can then be compared to established norms.

Evan says, “People learned a little something new and had a lot of fun trying to out do each other.  We even gave out prizes.”

Learn more about the 2011 annual meeting of the North American Spine Society. 

Dr. Paul McCormick

Dr. Paul McCormick and Dr. Michael Kaiser from the Spine Center recently returned from Illinois where they taught residents from around the country the finer points of spinal stabilization.

This annual three day meeting is sponsored by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and is held just outside of Chicago at the North American Spine Society ’(NASS) training facility. This year Dr. McCormick was the honored guest.

Dr. Michael Kaiser

Dr. Kaiser, who has participated every year since the meetings began in 2006, tells us, “We like to refer to it as ‘spine camp’ with 40 residents selected from around the country to attend.  It is a relatively rigorous course – we start the days between six thirty and seven AM and work until five PM.  The day is split between didactic sessions and cadaver labs to provide residents a hands-on opportunity to apply the concepts learned during lectures.”

In addition to teaching residents, the meeting is an opportunity for national leaders in spine to discuss current events, policy initiatives, and academic endeavors.

He’s talking about 60 year old Lisa Schwartz, a Seventh Degree Black Belt from Bergen County who could barely walk when she first met him.

Lisa remembers their first meeting, “We go in that day and he puts up my neck X Ray and says, ‘you need surgery and you need it now.’ My discs were gone. He goes down the X Ray telling me, ‘This one is squashed, this one is bulging.’ He got to one and said, ‘OK, this one has completely collapsed.’ It was just bone on bone. Plus, the space where the nerves come in and out–it was all clogged up. And it was squeezing my spinal cord.”

Of course she didn’t know all this before she went to see him.  She was trying to ignore her symptoms and keep up with her busy life. “I’ve been doing two jobs for years,” she says. “I am a graphic designer and I run my own Karate School.”

For the last 25 years she has owned YJCC Okinawan Karate where she teaches traditional Okinawan Shorin-Ryu Shido-Kan Karate-do in Bergen County and says, “I am the highest ranking female in the system and we are all over the world.”

When her hands and feet started to tingle and go numb, she says, “I ignored it. I said, I have no time for this. I have too much stuff to do. I did everything myself. I was teaching, and doing, and standing on my feet.”

After a while, she says she started getting weaker, “I couldn’t open and close my hands. I couldn’t hold on to anything or lift my arms above my head.” She was also having a lot of pain in her neck. “As a graphic designer, I am at a computer all day long,” she says. “It was getting so hard. I would be crying at the end of the day, it hurt so bad.”

But, Lisa was used to pain. She had a long history of hip pain. “My left hip was bad from the time I was 12,” she says. “I couldn’t run or do anything physical. By the time I was in my early twenties I couldn’t bend over to touch my toes or even my knees.” That, she says, is what led her to Karate in the first place.

“I’ve been doing Karate now for almost 40 years,” says Lisa. “That’s also how I met my husband, Larry–I kicked him in the stomach and he asked me out. We have been married 33 years and we have two kids.”

It was Larry who convinced her to finally see a doctor. Last December, they went on vacation to celebrate Lisa’s 60th birthday. “By then I could barely feel my feet,” she says. “I was having trouble walking. It was really bad. I am way to ornery to use a cane or walker–I just didn’t go far. My husband was afraid to let me walk from the pool to the bathroom by myself. That’s when we knew we had to go see someone right away.”

When she got home from vacation she went to see her doctor. He told her she needed to see a neurosurgeon.

Lisa found Dr. Kaiser on our website.  She says, “I read up on Dr. Kaiser and I thought he was amazing.”

In January she and Larry went in to see Dr. Kaiser. “We loved him from the minute he walked in the door. He was just so warm and caring. I’ve been to doctors who talk down, treat you like a child, look at you like you have eight heads, over explain etc. and he did it just right. We were very impressed. He was very professional but a regular guy. He really treated us like we had known him forever. We were just so comfortable.”

Dr. Kaiser got her into surgery right away. He says, “ Mrs. Schwartz required an extensive reconstruction of her neck, including fusing the majority of her cervical vertebrae. The surgery was done in two stages each took four to six hours. She did great. Her neurological status was severely compromised prior to surgery. It can be difficult to determine how much function can be restored when the spinal cord is severely compressed. Fortunately, in Mrs. Schwartz’s case, she demonstrated a dramatic improvement.”

In all, Lisa had five discs removed from her neck and the bones were stabilized with plates and screws. “I don’t remember much when I woke up,” she says. “I have to say, the first few days were hard. I couldn’t swallow for several days after surgery.” Dr. Kaiser says, “This sometimes happens when we operate on the spine from the front of the neck.”

Dr. Kaiser wanted to keep a close eye on Lisa so he kept her in the hospital for about a week until her swallowing returned to normal. She spent another week in the hospital doing rehab.

“Everyday I felt better and better,” says Lisa. “After the surgery I could feel my hands and feet coming back. I was laying there thinking this is unbelievable. We really noticed it in rehab. I was walking down the hallway one time when my husband was visiting and he just looked at me and he goes, ‘look at you standing up straight. You haven’t stood up straight in I don’t know how long.’ It was like a miracle.”

Lisa continued her therapy at home and slowly started back to teaching karate. Six weeks later she was back at work (both jobs) full time.

“I am careful in Karate. Its a contact sport–lets face it,” she says, “But I can do it because I am the teacher and I know what my limitations are. I want people to know that if they have to have surgery, it is not the end of the universe. You don’t have to give up what you love. As long as you are strong, you work at it, and you understand you have to modify, you can do it.”

Just before her six month check up with Dr. Kaiser, Lisa and Larry made a short video of her doing karate. “We made the video on my phone. He was absolutely enthralled by it. It was adorable. That is why I made it, I wanted him to see what I could do. To show him what good work he did. I think the world of Dr. Kaiser. He is just an amazing guy.”

Dr. Quest (center) with Dr. Lavine (far left)

A few of our neurosurgeons recently got a chance to teach medical students about the brain in a hands-on human anatomy lab.

Dr. Donald O. Quest from the Spine Center headed the lab for medical students at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons.

He is seen at left with Dr.Sean D. Lavine, looking on as a student performs a dissection.

Dr. Solomon instructing students

Dr. Quest was also joined by Department Chair, Dr. Robert A. Solomon, seen at left with a group of students.

The students were divided into small groups, each with their own cadaver and our surgeons shared their expertise and remained on hand to assist with the dissections.

Dr. Lavine instructing students in the lab.

Our Department Head, Dr. Robert A. Solomon will be bringing his expertise to the table as moderator of a Luncheon Seminar on Multidisciplinary Management Strategies for Unruptured Aneurysms.

Other members of our Department will be acting as Conference Faculty, Moderators, and Course Directors as well. They are listed below:

Dr. Jeffrey N. Bruce from the Brain Tumor Center
Dr.E. Sander Connolly Jr from the Cerebrovascular Center
Dr. Neil A. Feldstein from the Pediatric Neurosurgery Center
Dr. Richard C.E. Anderson from the Pediatric Neurosurgery Center
Dr. Paul C. McCormick from the Spine Center
Dr. Peter D. Angevine from the Spine Center
Dr. Alfred T. Ogden from the Spine Center
Dr, Michael G. Kaiser from the Spine Center
Dr. Guy M. McKhann from the Epilepsy Center  & Movement Disorders Center
Dr.Christopher J. Winfree from the Pain Center & Peripheral Nerve Center

Learn more about the 2011 Meeting of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. 

Read about last year’s conference Docs Present At 2010 Congress Of Neurological Surgeons Meeting.

BBC news described, “masked protesters – armed with rocks and sticks – and riot police firing tear gas and stun grenades. Dozens of police and protesters were injured in the violence.”

Protestors in Syntagma Square

The Greek government had just approved the tax raising measure of their Austerity Package,intended to help the country recover from it’s financial crisis. Public opposition to this legislation led to protests and rioting in Syntagma Square- just a few blocks from where the Kaisers and Lavines were staying.

“We could hear the tear gas bombs going off from our balcony,” stated Dr. Kaiser.”During our tour of Syntagma Square, we could see banners with the acronym PIGS, which stands for the European countries in financial distress–Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain.”

Dr. Lavine (back to us) on the Square after the riots.

“At the Acropolis there were guys holding banners and chanting,” said Dr. Lavine.  ”Later, we actually turned a corner onto Syntagma Square and ran right into the riots. The cops were shooting tear gas right in our direction. All Of our kids were exposed. It makes your eyes water immediately.  We were all crying. That evening, we saw a lot of small fires in the square. The smell was pretty foul from that.”

Dr. Kaiser commented, “Even from our balcony, which was well away from the actual riot, our eyes burned and teared up from tear gas carried on the wind. The next day, when walking through the square, the effects of the tear gas lingered. We could only watch the changing of the royal guard for about three minutes when we had to leave due to the tear gas.”

Though later reports indicated a number of injuries sustained during the riots, neither Dr. Kaiser nor Dr. Lavine witnessed any injuries. In fact, they both described the protesting as well organized and said the Greek people were conscientious about keeping tourists out of harms way.

Drs. Michael and Michelle Kaiser & family on Syntagma Square hours before the riots.

In the end, the Kaisers and Lavines left Greece with many good memories, were not adversely affected by the riots, and returned home safe and sound.

Dr. Hani Malone

Resident Dr. Hani Malone and Dr. Michael Kaiser from the Spine Center are currently conducting clinical research to determine the optimal treatment strategies for patients presenting with cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM), a degenerative process of the neck that can lead to neurological deficits and impaired quality of life.

Dr. Kaiser is currently chairman of the Guidelines Committee for the AANS/CNS Joint Section of Spine and Peripheral Nerve Disorders, the function of which is to establish standardized treatment paradigms for various spinal disorders based on the best available medical evidence.

Dr. Hani Malone is one the rising stars in the Columbia University neurosurgical residency program, who had developed a strong interest in spine surgery and promises to be a future leader in this field.

CSM is the most common cause of myelopathy (injury to the spinal cord) in adults older than 55 years, often causing progressive disability and compromising the patient’s quality of life. Patients will often present with hand numbness, loss of dexterity, gait instability, and compromised urinary control.

The goal of surgery for CSM is to relieve pressure on the spinal cord and prevent further injury, while maintaining spinal stability.  Surgeons have developed a number of different approaches to treat CSM, but the optimal surgical approach for a given patient remains an area of debate.

In order to establish the best treatment alternatives, Drs. Malone and Kaiser have been reviewing the clinical experience of the Columbia University spine surgeons over the past 8 years, where over 500 patients with CSM have been treated.

Development of a prospective patient database has become a national initiative, with the hope that such data will define specific patient characteristics that can be used to determine the optimal surgical approach.

This is particularly true with CSM since there are a number of surgical alternatives that may be considered. In addition to stabilizing and improving neurological function, maintaining and/or restoring the optimal spinal configuration is a major surgical objective to minimize chronic pain, prevent progressive deformities, and maximize quality of life.

Dr. Michael Kaiser

This research is ongoing and Drs. Malone and Kaiser will be submitting the preliminary work presentation at upcoming national neurosurgical meetings, including the AANS/CNS Joint Section on Disorders of the Spine and Peripheral Nerves and the AANS Annual Meeting.

Celebrating their Graduation (from left to right) are; Dr. Andrew F Ducruet, Dr. Robert Morgan Stuart, and Dr. Omar N Syed, MD

Seems like only yesterday we announced our three new Chief residents and now they are gone.

Chiefs Omar N Syed, MD, Robert Morgan Stuart,MD, and Andrew F Ducruet, MD have made it. They graduated and are heading out into the neurosurgery world to make their mark.

Dr. Syed will be doing a Fellowship in Minimally Invasive Spinal Neurosurgery at Semmes-Murphey Neurologic and Spine Institute in Memphis, Tennessee.

Dr. Stuart will be joining Charleston Neurosurgical Associates at Roper St. Francis Healthcare in Charleston, South Carolina.

Dr. Ducruet will be doing a Fellowship in Endovascular Neurosurgery at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona.

Former Senior residents Raqeeb Haque, MD and Paul Gigante, MD have moved up to be our new Chiefs.

We are also pleased to welcome two new residents into our program. Dr. Gaurav Gupta has joined us from Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, California and Dr. Jonathan Yun came to us from University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey/R.W. Johnson Med. School in Piscataway, New Jersey.

Congratulations and welcome everyone!

From Left: Dr. Kaiser, John Collins, Pat Kennelly & Kevin Collins

The Valley Hospital’s annual Golf Outing was held under sunny skies this past Monday at the Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, NJ.  There were 184 golfers who enjoyed lunch on the patio, a wonderful day of golf, putting and pink ball contests, and a silent auction during cocktails and dinner!

Many awards were presented at the outing including the 3rd Net team prize of Greg Norman Pullovers that went to John Collins, Dr. Michael Kaiser from the Spine Center, Kevin Collins and Pat Kennelly (all pictured at left).

There were also prizes for Longest Drive, Closest to the Hole, 1st & 2nd Gross, 1st – 9th Net, Individual Gross, and the Putting Contest. The event was sponsored by The Valley Hospital Auxiliary to benefit the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Unit and Valley Home Care’s Maternal Child Health Program.

From left: Dr. D'Ambrosio, Dr. Anderson, Dr. Link & Dr. Lavine

Also joining in on the fun were New Jersey Affiliates Dr. Anthony D’Ambrosio & Dr. Timothy Link along with Dr. Richard Anderson from the Pediatric Neurosurgery Center & Dr. Sean Lavine from the Endovascular Center (all pictured at right).