The newly upgraded Department of Neurology was dedicated at a moving, widely-attended ceremony at the Rambam Health Care Campus (RHCC). In addition to Ramban leadership and administration and the entire department staff, numerous retired doctors and nurses took part in the ceremony.

The Department of Neurology, which was previously located in an old building dating from the time of the British occupation, was rebuilt according to a unique architectural approach. Created by Architect Benny Isaac, the new facility includes a circular design for laboratories and offices, and an in-patient section painted in warm tones of orange and white. Funding for the construction – which totaled more than five million shekels – came from the Claims Committee, which oversees care of Holocaust survivors, and from the hospital budget.

Rambam’s Department of Neurology, under the supervision of Prof David Yarnitsky, provides special services to all of northern Israel. Among new services added during the last year are: treatment of Parkinson’s Disease by transplanting electrodes (DBS) into the brain, a procedure performed jointly with the Department of Neurosurgery, and a new technique for treating  stroke patients with a brain stent.

Brain stenting requires special expertise, and today, this service is offered at only four hospitals in Israel. In most hospitals, doctors treat ischemic stroke with direct injections of materials that dissolve blood clots. Effective for up to three hours from the beginning of the event, this treatment is efficient in most cases. The brain stent, offered at Rambam, increases the duration of ischemic stroke treatment from three to eight hours by accessing the depths of the brain with sophisticated stents and removing the blood clot at the same time.