Neurosurgery I St Vincent’s Private Hospitals

Our neurosurgeons specialise in diagnosing and performing surgery on a wide range of conditions affecting the brain, spine and peripheral nerves.

We help people with brain tumours — both malignant and benign. We perform advanced surgeries for people who have had a stroke or aneurysm and we also help people with movement disorders including Parkinson’s disease and dystonia.

We can also help some people who are living with epilepsy or chronic pain.

Our techniques include ‘keyhole’, minimally-invasive and open procedures.

Our neurosurgeons

Many of Australia’s neurosurgeons practice at a St Vincent’s Private Hospital.

Our neurosurgeons are amongst Australia’s leading and most respected practitioners, who have all undergone a rigorous process of assessment prior to gaining admitting privileges to our hospitals.

We have neurosurgeons with interests and expertise in all aspects of neurosurgery.

We help people who are experiencing:

Acute spinal disc prolapse, sciatica or trapped nerve in the neck
Degenerative disorders causing spinal canal stenosis
Benign and malignant spinal tumours
Cerebral tumours including primary glioma and metastases
Skull base tumours including pituitary tumours, anterior skull base tumours and acoustic tumours.
Aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations and stroke.

We also perform:

Functional stereotaxy for movement disorders
Deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease and dystonia
Treatment of hydrocephalus and CSF circulation disorders
Treatment of spinal cord cysts

Brain tumours

Depending on the location of the tumour, we may work in conjunction with head and neck specialists or ear, nose and throat specialists to accurately locate and excise the tumour.

Movement disorder surgeries

Parkinson’s Disease and dystonia are 2 types of chronic movement disorder. Using 3D imaging called ‘stereotaxy’ we can pinpoint the part of the brain causing the problem. We can then insert a device that provides ‘deep brain stimulation’ which can relieve the symptoms.

We have one of the largest neurosurgical units in NSW and we treat over 1,500 patients a year.

We were the first hospital to employ frameless stereotactic equipment in the routine provision of craniotomy. More recently, we were the first private hospital in NSW to implement the functional program of deep brain electrode stimulation for Parkinson’s disease and the first to initiative Duodopa® treatment for this disease.

Our St Vincent’s Darlinghurst health campus acquired a new MRI-guided ultrasound machine. This brand new cutting-edge technology is not offered anywhere else in Australia or the Asia-Pacific region. This MRI represents a major breakthrough in the treatment of patients with tremors, Parkinson’s disease and dystonia.

For brain tumours, we were one of the first sites to utilise the Zeiss robotic microscope. This is providing our surgeons with better definition of brain tumour borders with double screens providing 4k and 3D imaging capabilities and precise visualisation through fluorescent lighting features.

Our department provides services for all neurosurgical problems, including:

Spinal disorders for acute disc prolapse, sciatica and brachialgia, degenerative disorders of spinal canal stenosis, both benign and malignant spinal tumours. This involves open, minimally-invasive and percutaneous procedures and instrumentation and artificial disc for complex spinal procedures.
Cerebral tumours both benign and malignant tumours, both primary glioma and metastases. Stereotactic localisation and navigation is an essential part of this surgery, biopsy and excision of tumours.
Skull based tumours in association with the Head and Neck and Ear, Nose and Throat Departments. Endoscopic approaches to pituitary tumours and anterior skull base tumours are undertaken, as well as the removal of acoustic tumours.
Neurovascular disorders both open procedures and neurointerventional, for aneurysm, arteriovenous malformation (AVMS) and stroke.
Hydrocephalus, CSF circulation disorders and syringomyelia.

Your GP can refer you to one of our neurosurgeons.

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St Vincent’s Private Hospital Melbourne is a leader in the speciality of Neuroscience. Our neurosurgeons and neurologists treat patients for a wide range of neurological disorders and conditions.

St Vincent’ Private Hospital Melbourne has specialist neurosurgical theatres with state-of-the-art facilities allowing for the most complex of procedures.

St Vincent’s Private Fitzroy has a 34-bed specialised Neuroscience Unit, and 8 beds and a highly qualified specialist medical and nursing staff in our Intensive Care Unit.

St Vincent’s Private Hospital Melbourne collaborates closely with St Vincent Hospital Melbourne to benefit our patients in numerous ways.

We perform brain surgery for:

craniotomy for cerebral tumour
cerebral aneurysms
arteriovenous malformations
subdural haematoma
hydrocephalus
neuralgia
Parkinson’s disease
movement disorders
epilepsy
depression.

Spinal surgery procedures includes:

anterior cervical discectomy and fusion
posterior cervical discectomy
cervical Foraminotomy
insertion of artificial cervical disc
thoracic laminectomy, discectomy, fusion, vertebrectomy, decompression and removal of spinal tumours
lumbar laminectomy, discectomy, microdiscectomy, fusion
removal of spinal tumors (anterior or posterior approach).

We also treat patients living with the following conditions:

Parkinson’s disease
Multiple Sclerosis
Gillian Barré Syndrome
epilepsy
CIDP
stroke
migraine
hydrocephalus
trigeminal neuralgia
CJD
Myasthenia Gravis
pituitary management
vestibular disorders.

St Vincent's Private Hospital AIRO Brainlab

St Vincent's Private Hospital Melbourne is the first hospital in Victoria to use the Brainlab AIRO surgical navigation system.

AIRO is an intra operative CT scanner. This means that instead of a patient having to travel to and from a traditional CT machine pre, post or during surgery, all scans can be taken in theatre and relayed to the surgeon in real time.

For our patients this means less time under anaesthetic and an increase in the likelihood of successful surgery.

For our surgeons, they now have far greater accuracy when visualising the field of surgery and because of this, a positive outcome for their patient is a greater possibility

Your GP can refer you to one of our neurosurgeons.

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Neurosurgeon Dr Peter McNeill performs deep brain stimulation, a procedure that can help people living with Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, tremors and dystonia.

Your GP can provide you a referral to see Dr Peter McNeill

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At St Vincent’s Private Hospital Northside, we are especially committed to delivering excellent care, pursuing cutting-edge research and embracing new and emerging technologies and therapeutics to ensure we remain at the forefront of medicine in Australia, as well as abroad.

We have specially trained health professionals who deliver high quality services in neurosurgery.

Your GP can refer you to one of our neurosurgeons.

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A comprehensive neurosurgery service is now available at the Mater, with doctors rooms conveniently located on the Mater Campus.

Our neurosurgery services include:

Minimally-invasive spine techniques
Minimally-invasive approaches to brain tumours
Spinal tumours particularly metastatic disease
All types of brain tumours, including melanoma
Stereotactic procedures for tumours
On-call neurosurgery roster for in-patients and out-patients 24/7

Our neurosurgeons have a commitment to research in their respective roles and are building databases for clinical studies and trials with their other public appointed positions. They are also actively involved with the teaching and support of medical students from the University of Notre Dame.

Your GP can refer you to one of our neurosurgeons.

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The Neurosurgery department at St Vincent’s Private Hospital Werribee offer services for patients with neurological problems involving the spine and nerves.

What we offer