At the Center of Who We Are
The Brain, Nervous System, and Spine

The brain accounts for only 2% of the average person's body weight, but uses 25% of all the oxygen we take in to maintain communication with a hundred billion neurons that allow us to breathe, our heart to beat, blood to flow, speech and hearing to occur, and creativity to be expressed. How we identify ourselves, our place in the world, our personality - all have their home in the roughly three pounds of grey matter that we are only now beginning to understand in any detail.

The brain and spinal cord are interconnected, and deliver electrical impulses that drive body function. The adult spinal cord is about two feet long, a complex organ possessing intelligence of its own. With a circumference about the same as that of our little finger, it's through this thin ribbon of nervous tissue that our lives are lived.

It is in these complex organs that McLaren-Bay Region's Neuroscience Department excels.

Srinivas Chakravarthi, MD, ("Dr. Chak") once operated on a young woman with seven brain aneurysms, all the result of a hemorrhage. Each aneurysm was clipped, and a stroke prevented.

"If a health system like McLaren-Bay Region offers excellent neurosurgery, patients will come here for care. Bay Neurosurgical Associates has extensive experience in surgical repairs to the brain and spine. We offer superior neurologists, intensive nursing care, unsurpassed diagnostic specialists, emergency response to trauma, and post-surgical rehab." Click here to learn more about Dr. Chakravarthi.

Siva Sriharan, MD, says Bay neurosurgeons can handle almost everything in neurosurgical and spinal surgery.

"Ethical issues are actually the hardest part of any neurosurgical or spinal procedure. We have the best technology, but questions arise. A young person with a brain tumor  -  we should absolutely be aggressive with this patient. But what about an 86 year-old patient with an inoperable spinal tumor and other medical problems? Do you put this patient through high-risk surgery, or encourage them to live life fully each day?" Having the tools and skills is a major part of the equation. Knowing when and how to use them is equally important." Click here to learn more about Dr. Sriharan.

Common neurosurgical procedures include:

• Trauma surgery to the head or spinal cord (Accident victims can often travel shorter distances to receive the care they need.)
• Stroke (Joint Commission Designated Primary Stroke Center; Specialized Stroke Response Team)
• Disk surgery on back and neck, including minimally invasive procedures
• Removing brain and spinal tumors
• Skull-base surgery
• Craniotomies
• Aneurysms
• Chronic pain
• Kyphoplasty and Vertebroplasty (Minimally invasive spinal procedures)

For more about Diagnostic Imaging (Radiology) at McLaren-Bay Region, click here .
For more about Neurology at McLaren-Bay Region, click here.
For more about our Designated Stroke Center, click here .
For support groups, click here .

Click here, courtesy of WNEM-TV, for a patient's perspective on Bay's neurosurgery program...

Click here for maps and directions to our neuro clinics.