Northwestern Medicine now offering brain tumor surgery at McHenry hospital

Pituitary tumor resection surgery is not new, according to Dr. Michael Caron of Northwestern Medicine McHenry Hospital. It has been the common treatment for benign tumors for 10 or more years.

What is new is that the surgery, which accesses the tumors via the nose and sinuses, is now being performed at the McHenry hospital.

Caron’s first patient to have the surgery in McHenry County was Dale Stanish, 61, of Ingleside.

His pituitary tumor was first diagnosed in 2017, Stanish said. He’d “banged his head” at work so, to rule out concussion, he was given a CT scan. That CT scan found a small growth on the pituitary gland.

But then, earlier this year, Stanish started getting headaches so bad that he’d get home from work and have to lie down with ice packs on his head to get through them. He also suffered vision problems that were not constant but did cause his eyes to go out of focus. It continued to get worse.

“They just grow until ... they cause blindness.”

—  Neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Caron of Northwestern Medicine McHenry Hospital

“I was at work one day and had a real bad episode. My head was pounding,” Stanish said. He left work and headed to a clinic. A new CT scan showed the pituitary tumor had grown and was causing his dizzy spells, headaches, blurred vision and skyrocketing blood pressure.

Pituitary tumors are common and usually not malignant, Caron said. For people like Stanish, problems arise when the tumor keeps growing, putting pressure on the optic nerve.

“They just grow until ... they cause blindness,” Caron said.

When his doctor told Stanish he’d need to have the tumor removed, he was most scared of a hole being drilled into his brain to get to it. That’s when the doctor told him that, no, they would be able to remove it through the nose.

How the procedure works is an ear, nose and throat surgeon – in Stanish’s case, Dr. Mobeen Shirazi – drills holes behind the nose and sinus to create the pathway to the pituitary. Shirazi then shines a light and camera into the brain so Caron can remove the tumor.

It is a big change from when Caron first started training to remove pituitary tumors, he said. “When I first trained in pituitary tumors, we cut under the lip” and basically removed the nose from the face to get to the tumor.

The advancements of tiny, powerful lights and cameras now gives surgeons the ability to go through the nose. “There is a camera in one nostril, and we go in with fine, delicate instruments” in the other, Caron said.

Northwestern, he added, made an investment in the hospital to bring the surgeries to McHenry.

“We feel it is in the patient’s best interest now” to offer the tumor-removing surgery closer to home, Caron said.

“There is incredible depth in the department, and experience,” Caron said.

Stanish’s surgery was Sept. 15. He was back at work three weeks later. He was in the hospital a bit longer than most patients due to his high blood pressure that is now under control, Stanish said.

His headaches are gone, too, and a follow-up MRI in December showed no regrowth of the tumor, Stanish said.