Meritus neurosurgeon to be published in medical journal

Dr. Chikezie Eseonu’s paper looks at the impact of brain surgery techniques on how the brain controls the body.

A Meritus physician will have a cover story about the effects of operating on brain tumors in one of the top neurosurgery journals in the world in April.

Chikezie Eseonu, M.D., medical director of neurosurgery, was the senior author and principal investigator of the paper for Operative Neurosurgery. The paper is titled, “Quantitative MRI Tractography of White Matter Tracts After Tumor Craniotomy Surgery: Comparative Analysis Between Tubular Retractor and Open Craniotomy Surgery.”

It looks at the level of brain damage caused by different surgical techniques that can affect how the brain controls the body, Dr. Eseonu said.

“In the brain, there are these things called white matter tracts,” he said. “They are the nerves and neurons that essentially make the brain. They control the different parts of the body and their functions, so they control movement, speech, sensation, vision, etc.”

A brain tumor can be buried deep within the brain. To remove it, neurosurgeons use traditional open surgery, which exposes a large operative field and uses scalpels and surgical knives, or minimally invasive surgery, which uses a small tube that pushes brain matter out of the way, Dr. Eseonu said. Either technique can cause damage to white matter tracts.

Using MRI scans that can visually depict white matter tracts and their respective functions, “we can now calculate the level of damage that those white matter tracts take during surgery,” he said.

“Our study is quantifying it. It puts actual numbers on it,” Dr. Eseonu said.

Ultimately, the paper determined that minimally invasive brain surgery causes less damage to white matter tracts in the brain, which can better preserve bodily function. This can make a difference in how a person recovers.

“Everyone just wants to get the tumor out,” he said, “but knowing how much damage you’re causing to the brain during a procedure shows how it can affect the patient’s life.”

To read the paper, go to https://journals.lww.com/onsonline/pages/default.aspx

To learn more about Meritus Neurosurgery, visit www.meritushealth.com/neurosurgery.