Revolutionizing Stroke and Neurovascular Care in New Jersey

Explore Our Advanced Stroke Center and Cutting-Edge Neurovascular Care for Transformative Treatments

A premier neurovascular and stroke center provides urgent, subspecialized care for patients—and that’s exactly what we do. New Jersey Brain and Spine has one of the highest-volume neurovascular centers in the Northeast, and our sophisticated practice addresses life-threatening conditions with a team of seasoned experts.

Strokes, brain aneurysms, and arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are serious conditions that need serious medical care to match. Our Neurovascular Center treats well over 700 patients with these conditions each year with 24/7 evaluation and treatment.

Our Stroke Center Has A Top-Tier Approach to Neurovascular Care

We treat patients comprehensively–which means that we take advantage of the subspecialists on our team, carefully tailor every treatment plan to each individual person, and focus on compassionate care. 

“We’re dealing with one of the worst, most dire moments in a patient’s life and their family’s life,” says Reza J. Karimi, MD, one of our Board Certified Neurosurgeons with a Vascular Neurosurgery Specialty. “It’s a situation that they’ve never been through before, but we’ve been through on a daily basis.”

In other words, we know that our patients have many questions about their conditions or the conditions of their loved ones. We walk you through all the information you need to know, including the complexities of advanced treatments. 

Every case has a different definition of the best possible outcome. The role of our Neurovascular Center is to find out what the best outcome looks like for each patient, and then devise a treatment plan to reach that goal.

Sophisticated Treatment Options and Cutting-Edge Technology

Our sophisticated treatment options include cutting-edge surgeries. When we do determine that our patients need to undergo a procedure, over 90% of the time we are able to treat them using minimally invasive techniques. Minimally invasive techniques are important because they entail shorter hospital stays and a faster return to daily life. Whether the patient’s goal is to go back to work right away, get back to supporting their family, or ease back into their normal schedule, our Neurovascular Center has a track record of efficient recovery times.

Of course, surgery is not always the best option for each patient. Sometimes, careful observation is the smartest next step for a case. Our Neurovascular Center is not biased towards cutting—we’re biased towards whatever treatment will yield optimal results. 

Our Neurovascular Center Leads the Field in Patient Outcomes

As mentioned above, we are meticulous about defining good outcomes on a case-by-case basis. We treat patients on the individual level, and when we take a step back, it’s clear that this approach is generating some impressive statistics. 

Ruptured aneurysms, for example, are one of the most challenging conditions to treat successfully. Approximately 88% of our patients who have suffered a ruptured aneurysm go on to have good outcomes, living functional lives without disabilities. That 88% statistic is significantly higher than the national rate of 62%. We’ve consistently received referrals from other practices that have not been able to achieve these outcomes–when our Neurovascular Center takes on the case, we’re often able to design a stronger treatment plan. 

Daniel E. Walzman, MD, who is one of our Board Certified Neurosurgeons with an Endovascular Specialty, tells the story of a patient who had a stroke ten years prior and was told his aneurysm wasn’t treatable by a different practice. Dr. Walzman was able to identify that a flow diverting procedure would be a good fit, and the patient was able to get the treatment he needed at our Neurovascular Center. 

Uncommon Care for Common Neurovascular Conditions

We’ve already outlined that the common conditions that bring patients to our Neurovascular Center are brain aneurysms, AVMs, and strokes. But to drill down a little further, common conditions that involve the arteries and veins of the nervous system can include carotid artery stenosis, cavernous malformations, ischemic strokes, and mini-strokes.

Our Neurovascular Center is equipped to offer specialized care for these conditions because of our dually trained vascular neurosurgeons. This dual training means that our doctors have gone through neurovascular fellowship training and years of dedicated practice in both neurosurgery and endovascular neurosurgery. On top of their training, our high volume of procedures means our specialists have some of the deepest experience in the field. Our Neurovascular Center handles over 120 aneurysms and 300-500 major neurovascular procedures per year. 

Strokes are one of the scariest conditions that patients and their families experience. Our team is well-versed not only in the treatment options for specific stroke types (like hemorrhagic vs. ischemic), but in the risk factors and warning signs for strokes. When a patient comes to us, we take the time to educate them about what’s going on, what led to this moment, and why we’re choosing the specific treatment option we’ve recommended.

We’re proud of our outcomes across thousands of patients from all walks of life. For example, it’s not true that only older Americans have strokes. In 2021, we treated a woman in her early 40s who had a massive stroke. In fact, it was her pre-teen daughter who found her slumped and partially paralyzed on the floor. Our Neurovascular Center was able to diagnose this young mother’s condition right away, and Dr. Karimi performed a thrombectomy that not only saved the patient’s life, but allowed her to leave the hospital just two days after the procedure. She made a near 100% recovery in the strength of her right arm and suffered no lasting deficiencies in speech or memory. 

The thrombectomy was a sophisticated procedure that required Dr. Karimi to precisely maneuver through the blockage, stent, and blood vessels in an environment where time was of the essence. Dr. Karimi and Dr. Walzman have developed nearly unparalleled expertise in this area because the Neurovascular Center performs at least 50-90 thrombectomy each year. 

The volume of procedures, the decades of experience, and the commitment to each individual patient at New Jersey Brain and Spine’s Neurovascular Center are the ingredients for care that’s transformative.