Gavin Britz, MB BCh, MPH, and Ali Zomorodi, MD, bring North Carolina patients world-class care for cerebrovascular disease.

What kind of conditions do you treat?

We treat the entire spectrum of conditions that affect the blood vessels in the brain and spinal cord, including brain aneurysms, brain arteriovenous malformations (AVMs), brain stem cavernomas, intracranial stenosis -- a major cause of stroke -- and even rare brain disorders like moyamoya disease.

What distinguishes Duke’s program?

First of all, expertise. We treat a large number of cases each year, more than any other medical center in the state. As with any surgical procedure, the more you do, the more skilled you become.

Plus, our specialists are fellowship-trained in both neurosurgery and radiology, so we offer a broad perspective on each case. We are equipped to do whatever our patients need, with options they often won’t find anywhere else.

What are some of those advanced options?

For brain aneurysms, options might include minimally invasive endovascular treatment or microsurgery. Embolization, microsurgery, and radiosurgery are used to treat AVMs. Angioplasty and intracranial stenting might be used for stroke prevention.

Duke was the first in the region and one of the first in the country to use the technology known as MERCI to treat stroke patients, and we now also use the latest Penumbra device. And we were the first center in the world to use the Novalis Tx system, which delivers radiation with extraordinary accuracy for patients with AVMs.

What surprises most people about your field?

When people think about brain surgery, they might think about a long recovery. But there are so many minimally invasive options available to patients today.

As an example, the three technologies just mentioned -- MERCI, Penumbra, and Novalis Tx -- are extremely effective and make the whole experience much easier for the patient than you might expect. So when you’ve got some of the top physicians and most advanced technology in the world, you can expect to be surprised by what’s possible.

The Duke Cerebrovascular Center is among the nation’s few programs to treat patients with both microsurgical and minimally invasive endovascular procedures, as well as with radiosurgery, using the most advanced technology available anywhere.