The Minimally Invasive Cranial Base Center is devoted to providing minimally intrusive neurosurgical procedures and techniques in the treatment of brain and skull base tumors and cranial nerve disorders.

The center has two distinct programs. The Cranial Nerve Disorders program provides comprehensive care for patients with cranial nerve disorders using advanced neurophysiologic diagnostic and monitoring techniques. Specific areas of interest include trigeminal neuralgia, hemifacial spasm, disabling positional vertigo and glossopharyngeal neuralgia.

Over 100 patients per year are surgically treated for cranial nerve disorders at UPMC Presbyterian by Michael Horowitz, MD, and Paul Gardner, MD, and more than 5,000 patients have undergone microvascular decompression over the past quarter century.

The Endoscopic Neurosurgery/Skull Base Surgery program, currently led by Drs. Gardner, Juan Fernandez-Miranda, MD and Carl Snyderman, MD, has refined and developed numerous surgical techniques for less invasive approaches to certain tumors within the brain and skull base leading to shorter hospital stays and minimal postoperative discomfort.

Through their pioneering efforts, complex lesions of the skull base are treated transnasally using the endoscope as the sole visualization tool. This “inside-out” approach reduces the morbidity associated with traditional open skull base approaches.

This center combines the expertise of neurosurgeons, otolaryngologists, plastic surgeons, maxillofacial surgeons, radiation oncologists, and interventional radiologists to facilitate interdisciplinary treatment of complex tumors and vascular lesions at the base of the brain, skull and facial regions. To date, more than 1,800 patients have been treated using these minimally invasive techniques making it one of the defining centers in the world.

In addition, this same group provides comprehensive management of all skull base disease, offering traditional open procedures when appropriate. This allows a non-biased approach whereby the appropriate surgical corridor is selected based on patient, tumor and anatomical factors rather than surgeon preference or training.