Pediatric & Developmental Neurosurgery Center:

world -renowned
excellence

The Pediatric Neurosurgical Service
at MassGeneral Hospital for Children is
world-renowned for its clinical
accomplishments, state-of-the-art
technology and pioneering research
endeavors in the diagnosis and
treatment of all neurosurgical conditions of infants, children and adolescents. Our faculty, recognized authorities in their field, work closely with multidisciplinary teams to bring our patients an unequalled level of experience and expertise. Our staff couples their superb medical skills with compassionate care that is comforting to children and reassuring to parents.

MassGeneral Hospital for Children is a dedicated pediatric hospital within Massachusetts General Hospital, the first pediatric provider in Boston. While maintaining the integrity and atmosphere of a children’s hospital, MassGeneral Hospital for Children thrives on the synergy that comes from being part of a larger hospital. We are in the unique position of seamlessly caring for patients from infancy through adulthood. Through our close association with our colleagues who treat adults, we can easily exchange ideas and extend all of the hospital’s vast resources to our pediatric population.

Massachusetts General Hospital is consistently ranked among the top three hospitals in the country and its pediatric services in the top 1% in the nation by U.S. News & World Report Annual Guide to America’s Best Hospitals.We were the first hospital in the nation to attain Level 1 verification in Adult Trauma, Pediatric Trauma and Adult Burn. Our Brain Tumor Center receives referrals from medical centers around the world to care for children whose care is most challenging.

Pediatric Neurosurgery Story Book:

(Acrobat pdf version)

“Jake had an identical twin who was lost at birth due to an umbilical cord accident. No one knew until Jake was six months old and having motor problems that he had suffered a stroke at the time of his birth that left him with left hemiplegia… At the age of five, he began having pretty severe seizures sometimes 10 to 12 times a day. The neurologist that we had been seeing at the time tried many medications, but we were getting nowhere and the medication made Jake groggy and at times, ‘weird’. A friend told us about Dr. Cole, the director of the epilepsy program at Mass General. When we met him, my husband, Lance, and I felt instantly that Dr. Cole could do something for us. At our very first meeting, he talked of surgery as being a possibility for Jake’s type of epilepsy. After trying medications for awhile, some of which would work for a week or two, Jake’s care became a quality of life issue for Lance and me. We met with Dr. Cosgrove, a neurosurgeon, who believed that a functional hemispherectomy would cure Jake. He was right. Immediately after surgery Jake was seizure-free and still is now, two and a half years later.”

excerpts from an interview with Jake’s mother.