Bozeman (Mont.) Health has launched its first neurosurgery program.
The new Bozeman Health Neurosurgery and Spine Clinic puts neurosurgeons and orthopedic spine surgeons on one team. It is based at Bozeman Health Deaconess Regional Medical Center and is already seeing patients for brain tumors, traumatic head injuries, spinal deformity and degenerative spine disease, according to an Oct. 26 news release from the health system.
CEO Kathryn Bertany, MD, said the addition marks a significant milestone for the health system, the community and the state. Until now, patients in Gallatin County and the surrounding area who needed neurosurgery often traveled outside the region, including to Utah, for both emergency and scheduled care.
Two neurosurgeons who joined Bozeman Health this year lead the program. James Kalyvas, MD, previously served as director of neurosurgical spine at New Orleans-based Ochsner Health and as spine fellowship director at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans. Joseph Sramek, MD, most recently chaired the department of surgery at Kalispell, Mont.-based Logan Health, according to the release.
The clinic was developed with Ben Smith, DO, medical director of the Bozeman Health Spine + Joint Institute, which is Montana’s first certified orthopedic and spine center of excellence. Dr. Smith joined Bozeman Health full time in January.
The team has already performed an emergency craniotomy on a 3-year-old boy who had a life-threatening brain bleed. Clinicians had planned to transfer him to Utah but decided he could not safely wait. And in October, the team also performed Bozeman’s first TOPS procedure, a motion-preserving spine surgery that stabilizes the spine without fusing vertebrae, the release said.
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