Dr. Tommaso Tufo

Acting Chairperson of Department of Surgery / Consultant Neurosurgeon – Adult and Pediatric Neurosurgery (Brain, Spine & Peripheral Nerve Surgery)

FUH DSO (primary location)

Experience:

19 years

Areas of Expertise and Treatment

Brain Surgery

• Brain surgery with neuronavigation and ultrasound
• Robotic and image-guided stereotactic biopsy
• Awake craniotomy with brain mapping and intraoperative monitoring
• Microsurgery and minimally invasive resection of brain tumours (gliomas, glioblastoma, meningiomas, metastases)
• Fluorescence-guided resection and Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy (Visualase)
• Skull base and endoscopic surgery for vestibular schwannoma and pituitary tumours
• Treatment of hydrocephalus (shunts, endoscopic third ventriculostomy)
• Vascular neurosurgery: aneurysm clipping, AVM excision
• Craniotomy for haematomas

Spine and Peripheral Nerve Surgery

• Minimally invasive and complex spine surgery with intraoperative navigation and monitoring
• Microsurgery for disc herniation (cervical, lumbar, thoracic)
• Endoscopic spine surgery
• Cervical disc replacement and hybrid fusion
• Minimally invasive lumbar decompression and fusion (MIS TLIF, ALIF, XLIF)
• Spinal tumour and infection surgery
• Carpal tunnel and ulnar nerve decompression (mini-open, day case)
• Chiari malformation – foramen magnum decompression

Functional Neurosurgery & Pain Management

• Deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson’s disease, dystonia, tremor, epilepsy, OCD, depression
• Frameless and robotic DBS
• Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) for epilepsy
• Spinal cord stimulation for intractable pain and failed back surgery syndrome
• Occipital nerve stimulation for cluster headaches and migraine
• Selective dorsal rhizotomy for spasticity
• Radiofrequency ablation and balloon compression for trigeminal neuralgia
• Spinal injections (epidural, facet joint, nerve root blocks)

Education:

MD – Catholic University of Rome, Policlinico Gemelli University Hospital, Italy – 2005

Senior Fellowship in Neurotrauma and Skull Base Surgery – UNICAMP University of Campinas, Brazil / Curitiba Neurological Institute – 2008

Senior Fellowship in Functional and Epilepsy Surgery – Walton Centre NHS Trust, Liverpool, UK – 2014

PhD in Neuroscience – Catholic University of Rome, Italy – 2015

Professional memberships:

• Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS)
• Società Italiana di Neurochirurgia (SINCH)
• International Neuromodulation Society (INS)

Languages:

English, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish