Munson Medical Center (MMC) in Traverse City is far from Michigan’s largest hospital. Still, “some weeks we can be the busiest stroke center in the state when it comes to thrombectomy.”
says Thomas Schermerhorn, a veteran neurosurgeon at Manson Healthcare and MMC’s newly appointed chief medical officer. Schermerhorn is also the surgical director of Munson Neuroscience, a program launching today (Wednesday) that marks the health system’s attempt to become a strong player in areas such as stroke treatment and brain surgery.
“Historically, neurology and neurosurgery, two key areas of our neuroscience program, have experienced long wait times or patients having to leave the area entirely to receive treatment. ,” said Laura Glenn, Manson Chief Operating Officer. “That’s why we’re so focused on recruiting new providers. In fact, we’ve tripled the size of our neuroscience team over the past five years, adding new neurologists, neurocritical care physicians, and neurosurgeons. With this formal launch, we are expanding access to more healthcare providers who previously required patients to leave the region. We are announcing to our community that we are now able to offer better access and more professional services.”
Previously, local patients often had to wait more than a year to see a neuroscience specialist. People suffering from conditions such as chronic headaches, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, dementia and post-stroke complications may have to wait for treatment locally, risk worsening their health, or seek treatment elsewhere. You are faced with the difficult choice of whether to seek help. Now, thanks to facility expansion, technology investments, and heavy hiring, Dr. Munson has hired five neurologists, two neurosurgeons, and two neurocritical care surgeons in 2024 alone. Professor Glenn said waiting times had been reduced to “between two weeks and four months”.
In total, Manson Neuroscience sees more than 400 patients each month. Becoming the “busiest stroke center in the state” is an important milestone in its growth, given that stroke has long been one of the medical emergencies that local physicians are least equipped to treat.
Schermerhorn said Manson was inspired to grow its neuroscience division by a “randomized, double-blind, controlled trial” conducted in the Netherlands in 2015. The study “demonstrated the effectiveness of stroke treatment with thrombectomy,” he said. In this treatment, doctors “pass a catheter into the bloodstream to destroy the blood clot or pull it out of the blood vessel.”
“Thrombectomy is performed on patients suffering from so-called large vessel occlusions, which historically are certain to suffer devastating, life-altering, and even fatal neurological damage. ,” Professor Schermerhorn explains. “With this intervention, 50 percent of these patients will be normal or near normal (after treatment).”
Schermerhorn said that for Manson, the 2015 study raised the question: “Are there enough stroke patients in northern Michigan to consider developing a clot removal program in northern Michigan?” states. And we ultimately found that among patients who have had a stroke, arrived at the hospital in time, received the intervention, and had a positive response, the number of patients who benefit from thrombectomy across the region remains We determined that it would be in the range of 50 to 80 people per year. ”
These revelations inspired significant investments. In 2020, Munson launched Biplane Imaging Labs, an advanced 3D medical imaging system that helps surgeons identify blood vessel occlusions in the brain before a stroke occurs and navigate the brain after a stroke. We have acquired two. That same year, Munson hired endovascular neurosurgeon Dr. Gary Raja to head a new stroke center. With a series of other jobs and investments, MMC achieved Comprehensive Stroke Center designation last year, making it “one of only five regional centers nationally to earn Comprehensive Stroke designation,” Schermerhorn said. Ta.
Schermerhorn said there are dozens, if not hundreds, of people alive in northern Michigan right now who wouldn’t exist if MMC hadn’t become a hub for thrombectomy. He says it will be. He said that in 2023 alone, Manson and his colleagues performed 110 blood clot removal procedures.
Schermerhon points out that before dental extractions were performed at Manson, hospitals were limited in what they could do. “We got a call three days after admission, and at that time, the patient’s brain had swollen to the point where he was likely suffering from cerebral edema, which could be fatal,” he says. “The choice at that point was to remove part of the skull to make this swelling go away, and the person would continue to live but be neurologically destroyed. Otherwise, we would have to undergo that procedure. If so, the person will probably die.”
It’s not just stroke treatment that is being enhanced. This summer, Munson hired Dr. Neil Klinger, a Harvard-trained neurosurgeon who specializes in treating spinal disorders. Also on staff is Dr. Justin Pearl, a fellowship-trained neurosurgical oncologist who performed the first awake craniotomy in Manson Healthcare history.
“This procedure allows Dr. Pearl to operate on brain tumor patients while the patient is awake,” Schermerhorn said. “Patients can respond to stimuli, answer questions, move their arms and legs, so Dr. Pearl knows where critical and eloquent areas of the brain are located relative to the tumor border. You can map it very precisely. This procedure really helps maximize resection (complete removal of the tumor), but prior to the arrival of Dr. Pearl and the development of the neuroscience team, patients were unable to receive this procedure up or out of state. would have needed to travel to. ”
Manson leaders estimate they can currently maintain about 98 percent of northern Michigan’s neurosurgical cases.
