New Hemi sufferer found


Posted by Lynn Yarbrough ® , Sep 09,2001,16:11   Archive
Well, it's finally happened. Ever since I moved into this Del Webb Sun City community, I have been on the lookout for Blephros, and what do I find but a Hemifacial Spastic. But I don't KNOW anything about hemi's! A quick check of BEBRF turns up a short article on hemi -- Overview and Technical Description, but I am disappointed not to find anything about the surgical treatment(s) separating the artery from the 7th cranial nerve. So I can't tell this poor lady much about what to expect from her Dr. At least I have a Dr. to point her to.

But can anyone else point me to some useful literature on Hemifacial Spasm?

Thanks in advance,

--- Lynn




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Re: New Hemi sufferer found

Re : New Hemi sufferer found --- Lynn Yarbrough
Posted by Shirley-Arkansas-USA ® , Sep 09,2001,16:31 Top of Thread Archive
Lynn,
At last years conference in Kentucky, they had a super wonderful speaker on HFS and the Microvascular Decompression Surgery. He was excellent. Walter Mason probably could still make a $4.00 audio tape on this lecture for you.
There would probably also be some of that same information in your newsletter that contained information from that conference. Just look back through them. If you don't have them, let me know.

There will also be information that you could copy out of your conference binder from this year's conference from Dr. Zimmerman's lecture and Dr. Stacy's. There is a web site, also. I'll try and find the link to it.

Shirley in AR.

--modified by Shirley-Arkansas-USA at Sun, Sep 09, 2001, 16:32:25




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Re: New Hemi sufferer found

Re : New Hemi sufferer found --- Lynn Yarbrough
Posted by Virginia ® , Sep 09,2001,16:55 Top of Thread Archive
Below is a link to the Hemifacial spasm association. They have some info, links, and a support group there.

The speaker at the 2000 conference was Amin B. Kassam, M.D. He is with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. I tried to find something online by him and didn't, but did find a paper by others at U of Pittsburgh. Since I don't know how to put two links in the same post, I'll just put the link here in the body. The article is pretty technical and may be more than you really want to know. But the abstract from last year's conference is pretty good.

http://www.neurosurgery.org/journals/online_j/november98/5-5-p1.html

Here is the site of the Center for Cranial Nerve Disorders where Dr. Kassam works. There's good info here, too.
http://www.neurosurgery.pitt.edu/cranialnerve/index.html

Hope this helps.
Virginia in AL Related link: Hemifacial spasm association




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Re: New Hemi sufferer found

Re : New Hemi sufferer found --- Lynn Yarbrough
Posted by Ann Doyle ® , Sep 09,2001,17:39 Top of Thread Archive
Dr. Jannetta perfected the MVD surgery and has performed over 5,000 of them. Part of his team was Dr Kassam. They now work separately and both are excellent with their own team of experts that moniter hearing etc. They are both in Pittsburg. Dr. Horowitz works with Dr. Kassam. Another excellent site is circle of Friends. First go to Yahoo. Then hemifacial association.org. Both , the other being hfs-assn.org/members, have bulletin boards and egroups.com/chat/cofhfs. Go to Yahoo for both of them. Also, there is a list of members who have had MVd surgery, those who are satisfied with Botox and those that just use meds. There are many other highly qualified doctors for MVD surgery--which is a cure but as with all surgery has some risks such as Bell's Palsy and hearing loss in one ear. Both usually get better or disappear in time. Ann Doyle



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Re: New Hemi sufferer found

Re : New Hemi sufferer found --- Lynn Yarbrough
Posted by Lynn Yarbrough ® , Sep 09,2001,18:14 Top of Thread Archive
Many thanks to those who have responded. Since I first posted I have done a GOOGLE search and found not only the HF Association but a wealth of literature, much in gory detail, about the MVD surgery, options for anaesthesia, etc. Ain't this web a wonder?

Again, thanks.

--- Lynn




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