Healthcare Solutions

In July 1995, 25-year-old Chris LaVallee thought his life was right on track with a successful career as an investment banker and a wedding planned for the fall.

Then everything changed. He suddenly began experiencing frightening weekly episodes: his head would turn involuntarily to the right, his face would contort slightly, his right arm would stiffen, and he would be unable to speak.

He first thought that the symptoms were stress related, from his job and possibly his upcoming wedding; but when they began occurring almost daily, he sought out the advice of a neurologist. The diagnosis: seizures caused by a brain tumor in the left frontal lobe.

LaVallee was put on anti-seizure medication, but his neurologist told him the best option was to have the tumor surgically removed. Adding to his worries, the tumor was in a dangerous spot, near his motor cortex, making the surgery extremely risky.

He consulted with some of the leading neurosurgeons in New York and learned everything he could about his condition. His search led him to Dr. Patrick J. Kelly, Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at New York University Medical Center. "Dr. Kelly's skills, experience, and innovation, combined with the technology and exemplary staff," said LaVallee, "made me decide to have the surgery done at NYU."

From Sailing to Stereotaxis

Dr. Kelly pioneered and continues to refine a highly sophisticated technique used in neurosurgery, computer-assisted volumetric stereotaxis. This system can precisely map the location of a brain tumor in a three-dimensional space.

Interestingly, the idea that led to the development of volumetric stereotaxis began with Dr. Kelly's experience as a sailor.

"At sea," says Dr. Kelly, "you have harbor maps that show you where the water ends and the land begins. In volumetric stereotactic surgery, you see exactly where the tumor has its boundaries in space and where normal brain tissue begins."

Dr. Kelly's longtime goal of applying stereotactic methods to neurosurgery had to wait for today's powerful computers and high-resolution imaging systems like computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and digital angiography. By superimposing these perspectives, computer-assisted volumetric stereotaxis creates a single composite image of the anatomic, structural, and vascular details of the brain.

An even more recent development, magnetoencephalography (MEG), is a noninvasive technique that reveals the exact location of brain tissue responsible for crucial functions, such as movement and sensation. MEG maps real-time brain function by sensing the magnetic fields produced by the brain's electrical activity. This requires the most sensitive magnetic-field detection device in the world. NYU's MEG system, the only one on the East Coast, provides the surgeon with clear markers of critical areas to avoid on the way to the tumor.