Functional Neurosurgery

Functional Neurosurgery is surgical alleviation of a wide range of conditions including movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, dystonia, and tremor, Tourette’s syndrome, epilepsy and neuropathic pain syndromes such as complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), phantom limb pain, anaesthesia dolorosa, post stroke pain, cluster headache and cancer pain.

Treatments are based on electrical stimulation of various parts of the nervous system including areas of the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerves.  We use a surgically implanted system resembling a heart pacemaker to deliver small pulses of electricity to the target area, which relieves symptoms.  Alternative surgeries we undertake include stereotactic brain lesions for certain movement disorders and cancer pain.  Common procedures we perform are deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson’s disease and spinal cord stimulation for chronic pain.

Erlick Pereira  and Michael Hart subspecialise in functional neurosurgery.