Sunrise Hospital -Neurology and Behavioral Sciences

Neurology and Behavioral Sciences

Doctors
Treatment & Facilities
Tests to detect brain abnormalities
Equipments & Facilities

Neurology and Behavioral Sciences

Our Department of Neurology and Behavioral Sciences focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of diseases involving the brain and spine, peripheral and autonomic nervous systems. Our neurologists are responsible for the diagnosis, treatment, and management of all diseases and disorders falling under these classifications. When surgical intervention is required the neurologist will refer the cases to a neurosurgeon. The neurology department is well equipped with advanced testing facilities such as mental status test, function test of the cranial nerves, including strength, coordination, reflexes and sensation, for diagnosing the problem in the nervous system.

Doctors

Dr. Shyma M M

Senior Consultant Neurologist

Dr Jacob Chacko

Senior Consultant Neurologist

Our Service

Neurosurgical Department

Our Neurosurgical department complements our Neurology Department to cater to all neurological disorders that require surgical intervention, and functions round the clock. Brain and Spine injuries and cases related to accidents or trauma requiring immediate neurosurgeries are performed at Sunrise Hospital, Kochi. Advanced Operating Theaters, and Separate Intensive Care Area for Neurosurgical patients are some of our specialties.

Treatment & Facilities

The General Neurology Clinic diagnoses, manages and treat the full spectrum of basic and complex neurological disorders. Commonly treated symptoms associated with these general neurology include headaches, stroke, seizures, Parkinson's disease and dementia

Headache

Headaches are the most common neurological disorders found with general neurology conditions. Some kind of headaches are migraines, cluster headaches, and tension headaches. Repeated headaches could be a symptom of an underlying condition of High blood pressure, Infections, Temporal arteritis, or when blood vessels in and around your scalp become inflamed and tumors. Diagnosing the symptoms causing your headache is very important for treatment for general neurological conditions.

Stroke

Stroke occurs when you experience damage to the brain as a result of arteries leading to and within the brain becoming impaired. It’s usually difficult to anticipate a stroke, but symptoms of having a stroke are blurred vision, confusion, trouble speaking, or understanding, dizziness or loss of balance, Numbness or weakness of the face, arm, or leg—especially on one side of the body and Severe headache

Patients who have experienced a stroke once, tend to get a second stroke more often. Preventing the second stroke becomes that more important. This is done by medication, which can include blood thinners or drugs to treat any underlying heart problems. A healthy diet that prioritizes fruits and vegetables and limited processed food helps in control key stroke risk factors, such as Diabetes, Heart disease, Heavy alcohol use, High blood pressure, High cholesterol, Obesity and lack of exercise and Smoking

Seizures

Seizures are changes in the brain’s electrical activity. Signs and symptoms of a seizure can vary depending on the severity of your seizure, but the most common are cognitive or emotional symptoms, such as fear, anxiety, Loss of consciousness or awareness, temporary confusion and uncontrollable jerking movements of the arms and legs.

Seizures can be controlled by early treatment and medication and this can avoid long-term complications such as memory loss and brain damage. It can also happen due to alcohol abuse or withdrawal, Head trauma that causes an area of bleeding in the brain, High fever, Lack of sleep, Low blood sodium, and medications, such as antidepressants or pain relievers.

Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s disease is a nervous system disorder that affects the movement, speech and balance. Parkinson's disease mostly affects people around age 60, and symptoms gradually get worse over time. Common symptoms of Parkinson's disease are

Constipation: Constipation can occur at any time during Parkinson’s disease, sometimes even before experiencing symptoms.

Muscle stiffness: Muscle stiffness throughout your body causes difficulty to swing arms while walking.

Reduced smell: Most patients with Parkinson’s disease have some loss or lack of sense of smell

Stiff face: Patients with Parkinson's disease have stiff face leading to showing little or no expression

Speech changes: Patients have difficulty speaking and soft speech.

Tremor: Parkinson's disease patients often experience tremor in one hand.

Dementia

Patients with dementia have deterioration in memory, thinking, behaviour and the ability to perform everyday activities. Dementia mainly affects older people, but it is not considered as an ageing problem. It is recommended to see a neurologist for any symptoms of dementia. Medications and therapies help patients to manage the symptoms.

Epilepsy is a genetic disorder or an acquired brain injury called as trauma or stroke. During seizure the patient experiences unusual behavior, sensations, and sometimes loss of awareness. Between seizures, the patient experiences symptoms such as fainting, muscle spasms, amnesia, anxiety and depression to name a few. Treatment of epilepsy is usually done by medication and in some other cases by surgery or dietary changes.

At the Epilepsy Centre the doctor investigates the symptoms and medical history of the patient. Doctor may suggest tests to diagnose epilepsy and determine the cause of seizures. Test evaluation may include Neurological exam and Blood test to diagnose the type of epilepsy and detect for any brain abnormalities.

Tests to detect brain abnormalities

One of the most common test in epilepsy is Electroencephalogram (EEG) to record the electrical activity of your brain. Doctor monitor patients brain activity while awake or at sleep on video through an EEG test to record any seizure experience. This enables doctors to determine the kind of seizure for treating epilepsy.

High-density EEG may help doctor more precisely determine the areas of the brain are affected by seizures.

Computerized Tomography (CT) Scan is used to scan the cross-section images of the brain. CT scans can helps in understating the abnormalities such as tumors, bleeding and cysts in the brain that might be causing seizures.

Magnetic resonance imaging is used to create a detailed view of your brain able to detect lesions or abnormalities in your brain that could be causing seizures.

Functional MRI is used to measure the changes in blood flow to the brain. Doctors may use an FMRI before surgery to identify and locate critical functions (speech and movement) for the brain, so that surgeons can avoid injuring those places while operating.

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is considered the best imaging method to reveal how the brain functions between seizures. These scans could help doctors to understand seizures.

This type of test is used primarily if an MRI & EEG cannot locate the seizure origins from the brain.

Neuropsychological tests assesses thinking, memory and speech skills. The test help doctors determine the areas of your brain are affected.

Headaches are common among people. Severe and frequent headaches disrupting your daily life is a sign of something serious is when you have to consult a neurologist. The accompanying symptoms may be continuous headache for more than a day or two, sudden headaches, headaches when in strain, early morning headaches, changes in vision or eye sight and experiencing seizures along with headaches are some signs of consulting a neurologist.

Neurological Tests for Headache and Migraines:

The test are categorized into two types Primary Headache and a Secondary Headache. The primary headache could be migrane or headache related to eye sight and the secondary headache may be related to symptoms of other health concerns.

The process of diagnosis for Headache and Migraine may include Medical history of the patient for existing medications, supplements and other treatments, family history of migraines or headaches. Physical examination for the patient for head, neck and shoulders can also contribute to headache too. Neurological tests include eye sight, hearing , nerves, reaction time and mobility test. Blood, spinal fluid test and urine test help find the infection and other health conditions that may trigger Headache and Migraine.

Sleep disorders are conditions that result in changes in the way that you sleep which affects health, safety and quality of life. Some symptoms of sleep disorders are irregular breathing, excessive daytime sleep and increased movement during sleep. Sleep disorder can be of different types and are grouped according to behaviors, problems with your natural sleep-wake cycles, breathing problems and sleeping difficulty.

Some common types of Sleep Disorders are Insomnia, Excessive daytime sleepiness, Narcolepsy, Obstructive and central sleep apnea, Movement disorders in sleep, Parasomnias and Sleep disorders in children.

Insomnia is caused by poor sleeping habits, anxiety, lack of exercise, depression, chronic illness or certain medication. Symptoms for insomnia may include difficulty falling asleep, Waking up frequently during the night, Waking up too early in the morning, depression or anxiety, Difficulty paying attention etc. Most common treatment for insomnia are improving sleep habits and behaviour therapy.

Multiple sclerosis is nerve damage disrupting communication between the brain and the body. Symptoms includes vision loss, pain, fatigue and impaired coordination and vary from person to person. Multiple sclerosis may be symptom free for most of the patients and some experience severe, chronic symptoms frequently. Treatment includes physiotherapy and medication that suppress the immune system to slow disease progression.

Treatment at multiple sclerosis clinic typically focuses on slowing the progression of the disease and managing multiple and aiding speedy recovery from attacks.

Botulinum Toxin Clinic provides botulinum injection therapy for various disorders like hemifacial spasm, blepharospasm, oromandibular dystonia, cervical dystonia, laryngeal dysphonia's, focal dystonia, post stroke spasticity, etc. Botulinum Toxin treatment is extremely safe and effective.

Some common Botulinum Toxin treatments are

Spasticity

Spasticity is disruption in muscle movement patterns caused by damage to nerves in the central nervous system. This affects the muscles to contract (tighten) while others relax normally and stays contracted all at once. Stroke and multiple sclerosis are the most common causes of spasticity of the limbs. Treatment includes medications and physical therapy for muscle stretching and exercises to reduce the severity of symptoms.

Blepharospasm

Blepharospasm is condition that causes eyelids to blink interfering with vision and function. Blepharospasm can be diagnosed treated easily using injection of botulinum toxin. Botulinum toxin injections work by disrupting the overactive muscles that causes blinking or twitching.

Hemifacial Spasm

Hemifacial spasm is a movement disorder that affects the face with contractions on one side of the face. These abnormal movements can interfere with vision and chewing and appearance of the face. Treatment options include oral medications, neurosurgical microvascular decompression and injections of botulinum toxin. Botulinum toxin treatment to hemifacial spasm is highly effective and benefits can last 3-4 months after each injection.

Movement Disorders

Movement disorders are neurological conditions which affects the ability to produce and control body movement. Diagnosing movement disorders are difficult and our specialists at will work on a comprehensive evaluation to determine the cause of your symptoms. Diagnosing the movement disorder requires neurological test such as blood tests, Head CT, MRI brain, or DaT scan and physical exam such as neurologic exam and medical history.

Types of Movement Disorders:

Parkinson's Disease:

Constipation: Constipation can occur at any time during Parkinson’s disease, sometimes even before experiencing symptoms.

Muscle stiffness: Muscle stiffness throughout your body causes difficulty to swing arms while walking.

Reduced smell: Most patients with Parkinson’s disease have some loss or lack of sense of smell

Stiff face: Patients with Parkinson's disease have stiff face leading to showing little or no expression

Speech changes: Patients have difficulty speaking and soft speech.

Tremor: Parkinson's disease patients often experience tremor in one hand.

Gait Disorder Clinic

Gait disorder is a condition of abnormal walking pattern in an individual. It can range from from neurological condition, stroke, ear disorder, arthritis and also usage of improper footwear hampering walking. Gait disorder are found in older people than younger ones. Older people tend to have abnormal gait because of weaker muscles, delayed reaction and less muscle. The major causes of gait disorder are different lengths of legs, strength and tone of legs, blood pressure at standing, neck and spine deformities and neurological disorders. The different types of gait disorders are propulsive gait, scissors gait, spastic gait, steppage gait and waddling gait. Treatment for gait disorder are mainly physical therapy and strengthening exercises to strength, flexibility and improve balance. Medications are prescribed to treat arthritis, Parkinson disease and multiple sclerosis. In some cases surgery such hip an knee replacement is also recommended.

Cerebrovascular diseases are conditions that affect the flow of blood through the brain resulting in impairing the brain function. However, Stroke is the most common form of cerebrovascular diseases. Other causes of cerebrovascular disease are stroke, vascular dementia, vascular malfunctions, hemorrhage, Transient ischemic attack or mini stroke and Aneurysms.

Symptoms of stroke are vertigo or dizziness, vomiting and nausea, memory loss or confusion, numbness, severe headache, slurred speech, vision problems and difficulty in walking. Treatment of any cerebrovascular diseases or Stroke Disease is focused on the restoring the blood flow to the brain. Doctors choose treatment option based on the loss of blood flow. Medications are based on stabilizing blood pressure and cholesterol and improving blood flow by blood thinning. During the recovery process physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy are administered.

In severe cases in surgery is recommended to remove any blockages by stents.

Immediate medical attention is required with any cerebrovascular diseases or Stroke Disease. If treatment is not provided, patient can go into complications such as loss of cognitive functions, partial paralysis, permanent disability, speech difficulties and memory loss.

Neuromuscular Disorder affects sensory nerves and movements that connects with brain and the spinal cord. Muscle weakness in the primary condition with neuromuscular disorder. There are many types of neuromuscular disorder which are diabetic neuropathy, toxic neuropathy, small fiber neuropathy, autonomic neuropathies, muscular disorders and neuromuscular junction disorders.

Treatment options are based on diagnosis and condition and severity. By medical therapy and pain management some some neuromuscular disorder can be effectively managed and treated.

Memory disorder clinic diagnosis and manages the conditions that impacting memory and thinking from diseases such as stoke, mild cognitive impairment, cognitive disorders and alzheimer's disease. The clinic helps patients to manage their problems with memory loss and maintain improve the quality of life. The nature of the treatment depends on the cause and the severity of the memory loss of the patient.

Equipments & Facilities

32 Channel Video EEG

*Poly Sonography (Sleep Laboratory)

*Electro Neuro Myography

*Visual Evoked Potentials (VEP)

*Brainstem Auditory Evoked response (VER)

*Multi Detector CT Scan/Carotid Doppler/TCD

*Thrombolytic Therapy for stroke

*World Class Operation Theaters with HEPA Filter and Laminar Flow

*Imported High-end Sterilizers (Tutoner)

ETO

Flash

*Medical Monitors

C arm

*Advanced Patient monitors with ET CO2

*Most advanced Ventilators

Horus Extend

Transport Ventilators

*64 Slice CT Scan

*Separate Neuro Surgery, Intensive Care areas

*Centralized Medical Gas facility

*High-end Microscope (Carl Zeiss)

*Imported Microneurosurgery Instruments (Codman

Neuro Trauma

Spinal Surgeries

Functional Neuro Surgery and Epilepsy Surgery

Cerebrovascular and Scull base Surgery

Neuro Oncology

Neurosurgical procedures need great expertise and high precision ¦ We have the very latest in facilities and technological advancement

Contact us

Sunrise Hospital, Cochin (www.sunrisehospitalcochin.com)

A Unit of Sunrise Institute of Medical Sciences Pvt Ltd, Kerala, India.

GST No 32AAICS4341K2ZB

Neurology and Behavioral Sciences

Neurology and Behavioral Sciences

Neurology and Behavioral Sciences

Doctors

Dr. Shyma M M

Dr Jacob Chacko

Our Service

Neurosurgical Department

Treatment & Facilities

Tests to detect brain abnormalities

Equipments & Facilities

Support Services

Links

Sunrise Videos

Contact us

Sunrise Links

Sunrise Videos

Support Services

Other

Neurology and Behavioral Sciences

Neurology and Behavioral Sciences

Neurology and Behavioral Sciences

Doctors

Dr. Shyma M M

Dr Jacob Chacko

Our Service

Neurosurgical Department

Treatment & Facilities

General Neurology Clinic

Epilepsy Centre

Tests to detect brain abnormalities

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

High-density EEG

Computerized Tomography (CT) Scan

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Functional MRI (FMRI)

Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

Single-photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT)

Neuropsychological tests

Headache and Migraines Clinic

Sleep Disorders

Insomnia

Multiple Sclerosis Clinic

Botulinum Toxin Clinic

Movement Disorders and Gait Clinic

Stroke & Cerebrovascular Diseases Clinic

Neuromuscular Disorder

Memory Disorder Clinic

Equipments & Facilities

Equipments and Facilities

Neurosurgery Department expertise

Support Services

Links

Sunrise Videos

Contact us