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Advanced Stroke Care Now Available to Area Residents
Nationally Recognized Neurosurgeons Join Capital Health
TRENTON, NJ (November 18, 2008) – Capital Health announced today that two nationally recognized neurosurgeons, specializing in cerebrovascular disease, have joined its staff, making it the leading provider in central and southern New Jersey and Bucks County Pennsylvania for advanced treatment of stroke, aneurysms, and other critical conditions involving the brain.
Dr. Erol Veznedaroglu and Dr. Kenneth M. Liebman, both recently joined Capital Health, along with their team of specially trained nurses and clinical staff, and have opened the Stroke and Cerebrovascular Center of New Jersey. Veznedaroglu was formerly director of the Division of Neurovascular Surgery and Endovascular Neurosurgery at Jefferson University Hospitals and Liebman was assistant professor of Neurosurgery at Jefferson Medical School.
"There has been a significant void in this region when it comes to the advanced treatment of strokes and other life-threatening brain conditions, with most patients having to leave the state to get the highest level of care," said Al Maghazehe, CEO & President of Capital Health. "With the addition of Dr. Veznedaroglu and Dr. Liebman to our staff, patients can now receive the type of specialty stroke care that has previously been available only at large academic medical centers."
"Minutes and seconds can be critical when it comes to the treatment of stroke and aneurysms and access to specially-trained neurosurgeons can often mean the difference between life and death. The Stroke and Cerebrovascular Center of New Jersey brings to this area a level of stroke treatment that hasn't been available to residents of this region," said Dr. Veznedaroglu.
The new Stroke and Cerebrovascular Center of New Jersey is part of Capital Health's $30 million investment to create the Center and includes new state-of-the-art equipment for the treatment of stroke and cerebrovascular disease that includes installation of the area's only biplane angiography system. This system dramatically improves the neurosurgeons' ability to visualize vessels and conduct complex neurointerventional procedures dealing with aneurysms, head and neck tumors and strokes.
Both Dr. Veznedaroglu and Dr. Liebman are nationally recognized academic leaders in the area of cerebrovascular care, having written chapters and articles in various publications that are used as data for their colleagues across the country and invited to lecture at international conferences for physicians around the world.
Dr. Veznedaroglu joins Capital Health as director of Neurosciences and Endovascular/Cerebrovascular Surgery. He brings to patients in this part of the state a portfolio of medical experience that has not previously existed. Following his fellowship training in cerebrovascular/neurointerventional neurosurgery and neuro-critical care at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, he became a nationally recognized Endovascular and Cerebrovascular neurosurgeon in the treatment of strokes, aneurysms, and other potentially fatal conditions in the brain.
Dr. Veznedaroglu has designed and invented coils for the treatment of wide-necked aneurysms. He was the first doctor in the mid-Atlantic region to use the wingspan stent system, the first FDA-approved stent used to open clogged arteries in the brain. Intracranial atherosclerotic disease (a condition that results from too much plaque in brain arteries) accounts for about 8 to 10 percent of strokes due to ischemia, or some 60,000 strokes in Americans each year.
He is one of only a few physicians chosen by trial investigators throughout the country to treat aneurysms with a new "glue-like" substance called Onyx HD500, which is injected into an aneurysm (a weak spot in a blood vessel in the brain that balloons) where it quickly solidifies and cuts off the area's blood supply to prevent a potentially fatal burst.
Dr. Veznedaroglu was also the first in the region to use the Merci Retriever and Penumbra devices as well as the Cordis Enterprise Stent. A corkscrew-like device that removes blood clots in the brain caused by stroke, the Merci Retriever increases blood flow to the brain and limits the amount of brain damage caused by stroke, allowing patients to recover faster with less permanent stroke impairments. While the Merci Retriever pulls the clot out, Penumbra is a tiny vacuum device that sucks up the blood clot and restores blood flow to the brain.
The Cordis Enterprise Stent is a new way to treat patients with wide neck aneurysms through a specially designed microstent that allows aneurysms to be treated through a minimally invasive surgery without opening the skull. This new device now allows certain patients to avoid open brain surgery.
In addition to leading these and many other innovative best practices in stroke and cerebrovascular care, he is the only physician in the region who can proctor and train other physicians across the country on these same devices. He was director of the cerebrovascular program and taught as an associate professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital prior to joining Capital Health.
Dr. Kenneth Liebman also joins Capital Health as director of Neurosurgical Critical Care. After completing his neurosurgery residency at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, he was director of cerebrovascular neurosurgery for the Department of Neurosciences at Seton Hall University. He was chief of the division of neurosurgery at Muhlenberg Hospital prior to joining the medical staff at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where he received fellowship training in cerebrovascular surgery and interventional neuroradiology. He also started and was the director of a microvascular course taught to residents and fellows as an assistant professor of Neurosurgery at Thomas Jefferson University's Jefferson Medical College.
Dr. Liebman also performs procedures using the Merci Retriever and Penumbra devices as well as the Cordis Enterprise Stent.
Both Dr. Veznedaroglu and Dr. Liebman have offices at 1401 Whitehorse-Mercerville Road, Suite 212 in Hamilton, NJ. They can be reached for non-urgent consultations at 609-588-5081.