Just as your brain and spine are command central for your entire body, Shore's Neurosciences Center is the region's command central for treating disorders of the brain, spine, peripheral nerves and muscles.
Shore Medical Center was initially awarded the Joint Commission Gold Seal of Approval as an Advanced Primary Stroke Center in 2005, and continues to hold this prestigious Certification recognizing Shore Medical Center’s strict adherence to national standards and guidelines that help diagnose and treat stroke patients faster and with better outcomes.
Shore Medical Center has partnered with Penn Medicine to provide emergent access to stroke and neurologic care through the Penn Medicine Telestroke Program. The team of the Neuroscience Center at Shore Medical Center is setting new standards of stroke care excellence.
- Penn Medicine Telestroke Program
The Penn Medicine Telestroke Program enables Shore Medical Center providers providers to remotely communicate with Penn Medicine to immediately evaluate and treat individuals experiencing an acute stroke. Because time matters when having a stroke, the Telestroke Program provides remote access to the expertise needed when stroke specialists are not present or immediately available at Shore Medical Center. The faster a patient receives proper treatment for stroke, the better the chances for recovery.
Benefits of telestroke include:
- Immediate brain imaging review by a Penn stroke expert
- Remote examination and consultation by a Penn stroke expert
- Accurate diagnosis
- Immediate treatment options
Click here to learn more about Penn Medicine's Telestroke program.
- Facilities & Special Technology
Using today's advanced technology, including leading-edge computer assisted image guidance and microsurgical instrumentation, Shore's board certified neurosurgeons, neurologists, specially trained nurses and technical staff are able to diagnose and treat neurological injuries and disorders with amazing precision. And, as always, this extraordinary high-tech care is delivered with the caring touch you expect from Shore Medical Center.
The Neurosciences Center at Shore Medical Center has 30 inpatient beds with certified, highly-trained nurses and support staff to care for the special needs of patients with neurological disorders.
The center provides neurologists and neurosurgeons with leading-edge technology comparable to metropolitan medical centers:
- Critical care monitoring in each room.
- Toshiba Aquilion 16 CT Scanner providing high quality, high speed images for rapid diagnosis -- especially useful in trauma and stroke.
- Siemens Magnetom Symphony 1.5T MRI with advanced clinical capabilities, including high resolution 3D thin-slice imaging -- especially useful for neurological applications.
- Advanced surgical instrumentation and global positioning technology for brain and spine surgery
- Treatment
The resources of the Shore Neurosciences Center enable specialists to address a wide range of neurological disorders:
- Spinal fracture and complex spine disorders
- Spinal disc injuries – including groundbreaking artificial disc replacement
- Stroke
- Aneurysms and vascular malformations
- Migraine headaches
- Tumors of the brain, spine, soft tissues and bones of the head, upper face, pituitary and sinuses
- Facial nerve disorders
- Acoustic neuromas
- Tramautic brain injury
- Epilepsy
- Multiple sclerosis
- Parkinson’s disease
- Tourette syndrome
- Huntington disease
- ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease)
- Diabetic neuropathy
- Guillain-Barre syndrome
- Metabolic neuropathies and cramps
- Muscular dystrophy
- Myotonic dystrophy
- Myasthenia gravis
- Polio and post-polio syndrome
- Friedreich’s ataxia
- Spinocerebell or degeneration
- Hereditary spastic paraparesis
- Olivoponto cerebellar degeneration
- Dystonia
- Alztheimer’s disease
- Dementia
- Mitochonodrial disorders
- Shore as a Primary Stroke Center
In 2010 Shore was officially designated as a Primary Stroke Center by the New Jersey State Department of Health and Senior Services, and continues to hold this designation.
As a nationally recognized Primary Stroke Center, Shore follows protocols published by the American Stroke Association/American Heart Association and uses Joint Commission standard treatment orders and clinical pathways. Shore's Neurosciences Center has endorsed these order sets and pathways as the standards of care for our acute stroke patients.
Shore’s Stroke Center also provides education programs for EMS to identify stroke signs and provides 24-hour neurology and neurosurgery physician care. Shore Medical Center Emergency Department staff and physicians are specially trained in the care and treatment of stroke patients and are skilled in administering IV Thrombolytic, the clot busting medication that can improve patient outcomes. It is vitally important that once symptoms are identified, emergency treatment is rendered.
The IV Thrombolytic must be given within four and a half hours of the initial onset of symptoms. People need to treat stroke symptoms as seriously as they would treat heart attack symptoms. Stroke symptoms may vary depending on whether it is an ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke. Patients are cautioned not to sit down and rest or take a nap thinking the problem will go away. Stroke is a "brain attack" and mandates the same urgency as a heart attack.
- Stroke - Women's Health
What Women Need to Know About Stroke
Stroke is the No. 4 leading cause of death in women, and kills more women than men. In fact, 1 in 5 women will have a stroke. More women die from stroke than from breast cancer every year. Women who are African American, Hispanic and Asian/Pacific Islanders have a higher incidence of stroke.
Stroke Symptoms in Women
- Difficulty speaking, communicating or understanding others
- Difficulty moving the face, arm, or leg on one side of the body
- Decrease or change in sensation on one side of the body
- Vision changes
- Severe headache or dizziness
- Confusion, changes in alertness, difficulty thinking clearly
- Seizure
- Fatigue and weakness
- Nausea and vomiting
What Increases a Woman’s Risk of Stroke?
- Menopause
- Hormone therapy
- Birth control pills
- Pregnancy-related problems: gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia
- Immune diseases: lupus, rheumatoid arthritis
- Migraine headaches
Tips for Decreasing Stroke Risk:
- Pre-eclampsia is high blood pressure during pregnancy and is the leading cause of stroke in pregnant women
- Talk to your healthcare provider to determine the safest blood pressure medication for you during pregnancy
- Discuss with your healthcare provider the option of taking a low-dose aspirin beginning in the second trimester to lower pre-eclampsia risk
- Get your blood pressure checked before taking birth control pills and monitor blood pressure every six months.
- Don’t use hormone replacement therapy to prevent stroke if post-menopausal
- Quit smoking if you have migraines with aura
- Get screened for atrial fibrillation if over 75
- Get lots of rest, eat a healthy diet, be physically active and don’t smoke
When it comes to stroke, time matters. If you notice signs of a stroke, call 9-1-1 immediately. Your quick actions could help prevent brain damage, long-term disability or even death!
- Know the Warning Signs of Stroke
Call 9-1-1 immediately if Stroke symptoms are present:
- Sudden weakness or numbness of the face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body.
- Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding.
- Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
- Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination.
- Sudden, severe headache with no known cause.
REMEMBER: B.E.F.A.S.T.
- B = BALANCE – A sudden loss of balance or coordination
- E = EYES – Sudden vision loss, blurred vision, or double vision in one or both eyes
- F = FACE Drooping – Ask the person to smile. Does one side droop or feel numb?
- A = ARM Weakness – Ask them to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?
- S = SPEECH Difficulty – Is their speech slurred, or do they have trouble speaking? Ask them to repeat a simple sentence like “The sky is blue.”
- T = TIME to call 911 – If any of these symptoms appear, call 9-1-1 immediately.
Stroke Facts
- A stroke is a brain attack, cutting off vital blood flow and oxygen to the brain
- In the United States, stroke is a leading cause of serious long-term disability
- Approximately 795,000 Americans each year suffer a new or recurrent stroke
- Every 40 seconds someone has a stroke
- On an average every four minutes, someone dies from a stroke
- Kills ~128,000 people a year
- Two million brain cells die every minute during a stroke, increasing the risk of permanent brain damage, disability or death. Recognizing symptoms and acting FAST to get medical attention can save a life and limit disabilities
- The prevalence of Transient Ischemic Attacks, or TIA, (commonly known as “mini strokes”) increases with age
Routine evaluation by your Primary Care Physician and following Life’s Simple 7 is key to Stroke Prevention
- Manage blood pressure
- Eat Healthier
- Get Physically active
- Lose excessive weight
- Lower Cholesterol
- Reduce Blood Sugar
- Do Not Smoke
If a stroke is suspected, B.E.F.A.S.T and call 911 immediately.
