Research

The Department of Neurosurgery Division of Research at Allegheny General Hospital is committed to excellence and dedicated to the evolution of patient care in all aspects of Neurosurgical treatment. Our experienced clinical research team, working alongside our world-renowned surgeons, is currently enrolling patients in the following clinical trials:

Activa Dystonia

The purpose of this study is to allow patients to undergo deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery for the treatment of dystonia. For more information please visit the links below.

• Treatment Options for Dystonia - Medtronic
  
• Humanitarian Device Exemption (Dystonia IRB)

DBS for OCD

The purpose of this study is to allow patients to undergo deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery for the treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). For more information please visit the links below.

• Your Reclaim DBS Therapy For OCD - Medtronic
   
• About Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - Medtronic
   

Synapse in Traumatic Brain Injury

The SyNAPSe trial will evaluate if giving intravenous progesterone within 8 hours of injury for a total of 120 hours to severe traumatic brain injury patients improves their recovery. For more information, please go to the trial website.

To contact the research coordinator, call 412.359.3353.

ACADIA Facet Replacement

The purpose of this study is to determine if the ACADIA® Facet Replacement System is effective in the treatment of spinal stenosis. The primary objective of the study is to evaluate the overall success rate of the Facet Replacement System in patients with spinal stenosis when compared to a posterior spinal fusion control. For more information, please go to the trial website.

To contact the research coordinator, call 412.359.3353.

RESTORE Clinical Trial

This is a prospective, concurrently controlled, multi-center study to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the Spinal Kinetics M6-C artificial cervical disc compared to anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) for the treatment of symptomatic cervical radiculopathy with or without cord compression.
Patients eligible for study enrollment will present with degenerative cervical radiculopathy requiring surgical intervention, confirmed clinically and radiographically, at one vertebral level from C3 to C7.

To contact the research coordinator, call 412.359.3353.

ALA

This study aims to determine the safety and utility of using 5-Aminolevulinic Acid (ALA) in removing glial brain tumors during surgery. This study looks at using oral ALA to help identify the tumor cells intraoperatively and facilitate complete resection.

Oral ALA is given prior to image-guided microsurgical resection of the tumor. Following tumor resection under light microscopy, the tumor bed will be illuminated and any residual fluorescent tissue in cavity may be surgically removed perhaps leading to a more complete resection of tumor.

Assessment of structure and function of human aneurysm tissue and link to hemodynamic loading

The primary objectives of this study are to evaluate human aneurysm tissue from a mechanical and histological perspective and to perform patient specific hemodynamic studies of intra-aneurysmal flow, to investigate possible links between local wall structure and hemodynamic wall shear stress.
The 3D images that are required pre-operatively are used to recreate the aneurysm and an intra-op aneurysm tissue sample is harvested and used to complete the analysis.