Neurokirurgisk Forskningsenhed (PERNS)
Neurosurgery is by default personalized. Management and procedures are tailored according to scientific knowledge and clinical experience to provide meaningful care for all neurosurgical patients and "number needed to treat" (NNT) is kept close to one. For this end, causal explanations are sought in translational projects to explain neurosurgical pathophysiology and prospective clinical studies are used to corroborate clinical efficacy in well characterized groups of patients.
The center includes the following collaborative groups:
Copenhagen CSF study group:
A particular focus of the Copenhagen CSF Study Group is the translational integration between experimental and clinical research, exploiting inspiration from clinical problems to formulate research questions, and subsequently applying results from this research to solve notoriously difficult issues about clinical hydrocephalus management. Unique pressure recordings and studies of glymphatic flow in man establish a novel view of CSF physiology and hydrocephalus.
Copenhagen neurosurgical brain tumour group:
Research is collaborative with research groups at the Danish Cancer Society,research groups at Rigshospitalet and University of Copenhagen, Cambridge university and Karolinska Intitutet. Focus is on DNA damage, targeted treatment, new treatments, translational research and imaging studies. Brain tumour biology is studied in primary specimens and cultures to determine individual tumour characteristics for therapy, tumour biology and tumour crosstalk. Surgical management and relationship of surgery, epilepsy, edema and inflammation to neuropsychological parameters is analyzed. Advanced PET, SPECT and fMRI imaging is employed. Biomarkers are sought to develop an algorithm for individually tailored chemo- and radiotherapy based on tumour biomarkers and treatment responses in experimental systems for gliomas and meningiomas.
Inflammation group:
Analysis and management of individual patterns and biomarkers of inflammatory responses affect rupture of aneurysms, delayed neurological deterioration in SAH-patients and pathophysiology of brain-trauma; relationship between activation of inflammatory cells, cell-death, mitochondrial function, spreading depression, ischemia and oxidative mechanisms.
Cognition and emotional neurosurgical research:
Research on anxiety, depression and cognitive deterioration after elective surgery and subarachnoid hemorrhages. Studies on coping, pain and quality of life in relation to time after surgery, expectations, support, neurological symptoms, anxiety, depression and cognitive deterioration after elective surgery and subarachnoid hemorrhage.
Vascular research group:
Subarachnoid hemorrhage causes delayed ischemic deficit, csf circulation disturbances and neuropsychological morbidity in survivors. The mechanisms of delayed deterioration, pathophysiology and depressive/anxious states are studied with special reference to biomarkers, spreading depression, glymphatic flow and neuro-inflammation.
Epidemiology group:
Epidemiological studies to clarify pathology and outcomes of neurosurgical diseases.