MHTP neurosurgical research groups makes mark in Milan

The Monash Health Translation Precinct (MHTP) neurosurgical research group made their mark at the prestigious Global Spine Congress in Milan earlier this month.

Five abstracts from MHTP were accepted at scientific meeting, the only international Spine Congress of its kind in the world, and all will be published in the Global Spine Journal.

“The Department of Surgery at Monash Health neurosurgical research group has both basic science and clinical divisions,” said Monash University’s Associate Professor Tony Goldschlager.

“Basic science research is performed jointly through the Hudson Institute of Medical Research and the Department of Surgery, School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (SCS).”

Associate Professor Goldschlager said the Monash neurosurgical team, comprising of doctors, Masters and PhD candidates, were honoured to have had five abstracts accepted at the prestigious Global Spine meeting in Milan.

“Two abstracts were on stem cell mediated repair of the intervertebral disc, following microdisectomy—a technique that our team pioneered and shows promise in revolutionising one of the most common operations performed,” said Associate Professor Goldschlager.

“One abstract was on novel high resolution radiological analysis of the intervertebral disc, a project performed together with Monash Biomedical Imaging while another focused clinically on microdisectomy and its postoperative care, an area in which we are currently conducting a clinical trial.”

“The final abstract was on predicting success of a new minimally invasive surgical technique that we utilise, and the study showed positive results.”

The abstracts included four podium presentations by MHTP neurosurgical resident Dr Teddy Lim and neurosurgical registrars Dr Chris Daly and Dr Reece Sher as part of their PhD and Masters respectively. There was also a poster.