The Moyamoya Center at Stanford offers an extensively experienced group of professionals who see several new moyamoya patients each week. Since 1991, the Moyamoya Team, including neurosurgeons, neurologists, neuro-radiologists, neuro-anestheiologists, nurses, nurse practitioners, social workers, technologists, scheduling coordinators, office and clinic staff have enthusiastically worked with patients and families who traveled to the Bay Area from all over the world. The team approach we offer to patients and families is one of the main reasons patients feel they receive such excellent care.
Moyamoya and its history
One the rarest forms of occlusive cerebrovascular disorders encountered in neurosurgery is Moyamoya disease. Fragile blood vessels proliferate around a blocked artery in an attempt to bypass an occlusion and their appearance on a cerebral angiogram resembles a "puff of smoke" or "moyamoya," a term coined by a Japanese team who first described the disease. It can affect both children and adults usually with symptoms of TIAs, strokes, headaches and seizures. There is currently no drug treatment for moyamoya disease and surgery is aimed at bypassing the blockage with another artery to restore normal blood flow. Dr.Steinberg has performed over 700 of these revascularization procedures for moyamoya making his case experience with this disease one of the largest in the world.Symtomps
Typically symptoms are:- Strokes (sustained weakness or numbness in an arm or leg, difficulty speaking, visual abnormalities or problems walking)
- Transient ischemic attacks, or TIA's (temporary stroke-like symptoms that don't last long)
- Headaches
- Progressive cognitive or learning impairments
Moyamoya sometimes occurs along with other disorders such as Down's Syndrome, brain AVM's (arteriovenous malformations), and neurofibromatosis. We have also seen it in patients who had previous brain radiation for tumors.