Posted 9:51 pm Thursday, October 11, 2007
ETexas Medical Community Gains Innovative Specialist
By LAUREN GROVER
Staff Writer
Dr. Sabatino Bianco likes big challenges in small spaces.
He specializes in minimally invasive neurosurgery — using advanced endoscopic techniques — and arrived in Tyler in August to become the first Neuroscience Institute director at Mother Frances Hospital.
Last week, he performed the first successful fully-endoscopic pituitary gland tumor removal through the nasal cavity in East Texas, a procedure requiring a one-year specialty fellowship for its technical difficulty. And, on Wednesday morning, he implanted an artificial cervical disk in the neck of Becky Barr, an East Texas resident — another first in the region.
He says this is just the start. “We have a tremendous goal,” Bianco said Tuesday.
Staff Writer
Dr. Sabatino Bianco likes big challenges in small spaces.
He specializes in minimally invasive neurosurgery — using advanced endoscopic techniques — and arrived in Tyler in August to become the first Neuroscience Institute director at Mother Frances Hospital.
Last week, he performed the first successful fully-endoscopic pituitary gland tumor removal through the nasal cavity in East Texas, a procedure requiring a one-year specialty fellowship for its technical difficulty. And, on Wednesday morning, he implanted an artificial cervical disk in the neck of Becky Barr, an East Texas resident — another first in the region.
He says this is just the start. “We have a tremendous goal,” Bianco said Tuesday.
Dr. Bianco and his assistant, Dr. Williams, curl over the neck of Becky Barr in the 1,000-square foot neurosurgery operating room at Mother Frances, equipped with four flat-screen TVs broadcasting straight from the surgical camera attached to Bianco’s goggles.
“We want to develop a neuroscience center of excellence … a center that within five years is recognized nationally, even worldwide.”
Bianco brings a new level of expertise to East Texas, and a friendly rivalry to the neurosurgeons at East Texas Medical Center whose cyberknife radiosurgery has improved the accuracy, speed and flexibility of certain tumor removal for almost a year.
To accommodate for his specialized work, Mother Frances Hospital recently built a 1,000-square-foot neurosurgery operating room outfitted with HD cameras, HD monitors and thousands of dollars of equipment.
On Wednesday morning, Bianco moves comfortably around the spacious unit as he preps Mrs. Barr’s neck for the procedure.
Soothing instrumental music streams through the OR as almost 20 assistants and onlookers watch him work.
Bianco said he likes such surgeries because they require a high level of training on his part and an easier, more promising recovery for his patients.
Bianco brings a new level of expertise to East Texas, and a friendly rivalry to the neurosurgeons at East Texas Medical Center whose cyberknife radiosurgery has improved the accuracy, speed and flexibility of certain tumor removal for almost a year.
To accommodate for his specialized work, Mother Frances Hospital recently built a 1,000-square-foot neurosurgery operating room outfitted with HD cameras, HD monitors and thousands of dollars of equipment.
On Wednesday morning, Bianco moves comfortably around the spacious unit as he preps Mrs. Barr’s neck for the procedure.
Soothing instrumental music streams through the OR as almost 20 assistants and onlookers watch him work.
Bianco said he likes such surgeries because they require a high level of training on his part and an easier, more promising recovery for his patients.
Becky Barr, 40, rests in a hospital bed before her surgery on Wednesday morning.
The artificial disk used in Mrs. Barr’s neck was FDA approved just three months ago, but Bianco said it will be standard procedure for patients like her very soon.
“This is opening new doors,” he said. “Before we were doing disk fusion where there’s a 5 to 10 percent chance the patient will need another surgery (soon after). “This is better for the patient.”
Mrs. Barr said she was referred to Bianco in late August and felt immediately in capable hands. “I believe God puts us in the right place at the right time,” she said. “And Dr. Bianco is here in East Texas.”
The metal disk doesn’t just mean a more rapid recovery, but a movement that fusing discs could never achieve, Bianco said.
“The most important movement is the two millimeters of translation slide,” said Brad Bookman, sales representative for Medtronic, the disc’s maker, who assisted in preparing the surgical tools and equipment in the OR.
“It mimics the body’s real physiological motion.” “Translation” is the neck’s ostrich-like motion, one that neck patients don’t want to lose, he said.
Bianco studied under the seasoned tutelage of Dr. Haedong Jho at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s school for minimally invasive neurosurgery — Jho spurred him to love neurosurgeries thrills.
Endoscopy transformed brain surgery, he said. “To see in the depths of the brain, you have to make a big hole: to let light in, and a microscope in,” he said. “It’s like a big wedge you see, but with an endoscope, it’s a tiny whole with a camera … your eyes are in the patient’s head. “When you put the endoscope in you can look through different angles at different corners; with a microscope, you’re 80 inches away.”
Bianco said the space is too tight, that he often feels he doesn’t have enough room or enough hands. His mentor, Dr. Jho, called it doing surgery “with chopsticks.” But Bianco said it is this challenge that keeps him going back to the operating table each day.
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For Clarification:
Dr. Sabatino Bianco implanted the first Medtronic PRESTIGE Cervical Disc in East Texas after its FDA approval in July, Medtronic Sales Representative Brad Bookman said Thursday.
The PRESTIGE Cervical Disc is the first artificial disc of its kind commercially available in the U.S. with FDA approval for use in the neck, the manufacturer claims.
Many cervical disk implants have been performed by East Texas surgeons using artificial disks in pre-FDA approval trial stages.
Bianco also performed the first pituitary gland tumor removal using only an endoscope and no microscope, not requiring the removal of the turbinate bone in the nose, not utilizing the assistance of an ear-nose-and-throat doctor, not requiring packing in the nose, and allowing the patient to go home 24 to 30 hours after surgery, in East Texas, Bianco said on Thursday.
Pituitary gland tumor removal has been done in East Texas for many years through other means including the use of endoscopes and the Cyberknife technique, local neurosurgeons told the Tyler Morning Telegraph on Thursday.
“This is opening new doors,” he said. “Before we were doing disk fusion where there’s a 5 to 10 percent chance the patient will need another surgery (soon after). “This is better for the patient.”
Mrs. Barr said she was referred to Bianco in late August and felt immediately in capable hands. “I believe God puts us in the right place at the right time,” she said. “And Dr. Bianco is here in East Texas.”
The metal disk doesn’t just mean a more rapid recovery, but a movement that fusing discs could never achieve, Bianco said.
“The most important movement is the two millimeters of translation slide,” said Brad Bookman, sales representative for Medtronic, the disc’s maker, who assisted in preparing the surgical tools and equipment in the OR.
“It mimics the body’s real physiological motion.” “Translation” is the neck’s ostrich-like motion, one that neck patients don’t want to lose, he said.
Bianco studied under the seasoned tutelage of Dr. Haedong Jho at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s school for minimally invasive neurosurgery — Jho spurred him to love neurosurgeries thrills.
Endoscopy transformed brain surgery, he said. “To see in the depths of the brain, you have to make a big hole: to let light in, and a microscope in,” he said. “It’s like a big wedge you see, but with an endoscope, it’s a tiny whole with a camera … your eyes are in the patient’s head. “When you put the endoscope in you can look through different angles at different corners; with a microscope, you’re 80 inches away.”
Bianco said the space is too tight, that he often feels he doesn’t have enough room or enough hands. His mentor, Dr. Jho, called it doing surgery “with chopsticks.” But Bianco said it is this challenge that keeps him going back to the operating table each day.
------
For Clarification:
Dr. Sabatino Bianco implanted the first Medtronic PRESTIGE Cervical Disc in East Texas after its FDA approval in July, Medtronic Sales Representative Brad Bookman said Thursday.
The PRESTIGE Cervical Disc is the first artificial disc of its kind commercially available in the U.S. with FDA approval for use in the neck, the manufacturer claims.
Many cervical disk implants have been performed by East Texas surgeons using artificial disks in pre-FDA approval trial stages.
Bianco also performed the first pituitary gland tumor removal using only an endoscope and no microscope, not requiring the removal of the turbinate bone in the nose, not utilizing the assistance of an ear-nose-and-throat doctor, not requiring packing in the nose, and allowing the patient to go home 24 to 30 hours after surgery, in East Texas, Bianco said on Thursday.
Pituitary gland tumor removal has been done in East Texas for many years through other means including the use of endoscopes and the Cyberknife technique, local neurosurgeons told the Tyler Morning Telegraph on Thursday.
