CHRISTOPHER LIND Neurosurgeon

0408 961 510

Functional and Stereotactic Surgery

Functional neurosurgery is the field concerned with neurosurgery to improve brain function rather than removing abnormal tissue. Professor Lind is internationally recognised through his research and clinical skills in this area and collaborates with the leading movement disorder neurologists in the state. He is known for advancing techniques for deep brain stimulation surgery under general anaesthetic using MRI guidance rather than clinical and electrical assessment of the awake patient in the operating room. He is the second neurosurgeon worldwide to use the MRI-directed implantable guide tube technique and performs these surgeries at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. He has pioneered the use of the caudal zona incerta and posterior subthalamic area for Parkinson’s disease and tremor since 2008. He has extensive experience with awake and asleep DBS of the globus pallidus interna for Parkinson’s disease, dystonias (including generalized, focal, torticollis/cervical, and camptocormia) and Tourette’s syndrome.

Prof Lind is a statewide expert in surgery for facial pain including trigeminal neuralgia and complex neurogenic pain syndromes. He regularly performs microvascular decompressions for hemifacial spasm, glossopharyngeal and trigeminal neuralgias. He is one of the few neurosurgeons in Australia to perform and present at meetings on motor cortex stimulation surgery for complex facial pain. He performs minimally invasive trigeminal radiofrequency thermocoagulation procedures for trigeminal neuralgia when microvascular decompression is not feasible.

Stereotaxis is the neurosurgical technique used to pass probes, cannulas and electrodes safely into the brain. Professor Lind has written a number of academic papers on this subject. He is an expert
at using neuronavigation guidance systems to perform precise shunt surgery for benign intracranial hypertension, endoscopic third ventriculoscopy for hydrocephalus and sample tumours in difficult locations.

Prof Lind does not perform psychiatric neurosurgery.