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Clinical News – Sep ’16

Clinical News – Sep ’16

Think FAST - stroke
Royal North Shore Hospital to implement new time critical therapies for eligible ischaemic stroke patients

Recent developments in stroke therapy have dramatically changed the outcome of stroke dramatically.

The likelihood of surviving a stroke and live with no or minimal disability has increased multi-fold through access to hyper acute stroke therapy: time critical therapy in ischemic stroke, which currently includes thrombolysis and embolectomy.

Access to these complex and resource intensive therapies is highly time critical. Every second counts.

To enhance the overall management, coordination and treatment of hyper acute stroke these new time critical therapies will be implemented at Royal North Shore Hospital (RNSH). This change to the model of care will include alterations to the Ambulance Matrix for patients with a suspected stroke. RNSH will be the sole Acute Thrombolysis Centre (ATC) within NSLHD. The service will operate 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, commencing on Monday 19 September 2016.

To read more CLICK HERE.

pregnant woman
New FASD diagnostic tool

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) often goes undiagnosed, which can lead to more problems for people experiencing this condition. That’s why a new diagnostic tool has recently been developed, to assist health practitioners diagnose FASD and help people get the support they need to manage the condition. This tool is the result of the FASD action plan.

FASD describes a variety of physical, cognitive and developmental problems that someone may experience due to their mother consuming alcohol during pregnancy. The most obvious symptoms are facial abnormalities which are only present in the most severe cases. However, the behavioural, organ and learning problems that are also caused by FASD are often not picked up or are attributed to another condition.

FASD is not just a woman’s issue, and partners and communities need to be involved in supporting them during pregnancy.

It’s a good time to become familiar with the guidelines and share them with colleagues and your wider community.

Macquarie University Private Hospital
Macquarie University Hospital’s Gamma Knife fund

Gamma Knife radiosurgery is recognised internationally as the gold standard and a well-established, precise, powerful and proven method to deliver intra-cranial radiosurgery to a highly defined target within the brain. It is a non-invasive alternative to traditional brain surgery and radiation therapy for treatment of complex, difficult to treat brain conditions.

Macquarie University is the recipient of a generous donation – the Monique and Doug Thompson Gamma Knife Fund (‘Gamma Knife Fund’) – to provide access to Gamma Knife services at Macquarie University Hospital for patients who would otherwise not be able to afford it.

Macquarie University Hospital is home to Australia’s first Gamma Knife. The experts in Gamma Knife radiosurgery are able to treat malignant and benign brain tumours (including metastases, acoustic neuromas, meningiomas), vascular abnormalities (including arteriovenous malformations) and functional disorders (including trigeminal neuralgia).

To date, receiving Gamma Knife treatment in Australia has been cost prohibitive for some patients. Macquarie University Hospital believes all patients in NSW (and indeed Australia) should have equal access to this gold standard of care and we are now fortunate to be able to help make this happen through the Gamma Knife Fund.

The newly established Gamma Knife Fund enables eligible NSW (and other Australian) patients who otherwise could not afford the Gamma Knife treatment to receive financial support for treatment at Macquarie University Hospital.

CLICK HERE to find out more about Gamma Knife.

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