Southmead Hospital, North Bristol NHS Trust
Southmead Hospital is part of North Bristol NHS Trust - the largest Trust in the South and West Region and one of the largest in the country. It serves a local population of approximately 500,000 but also provides several specialist regional services, including those in the Institute of Clinical Neurosciences. The Neuropathology Department at Southmead Hospital is part of the Institute, which has an excellent national and international reputation and provides neurological, neurosurgical and neuropsychiatric care to approximately 2.5 million people in the former Avon area, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire and in some cases, further afield. Southmead Hospital occupies a large site with a mixture of old and new buildings. The Trust has approximately 1,200 in-patient beds. The regional services it provides in addition to those in the clinical neurosciences are in plastic surgery, renal services and some orthopaedic services. The Trust also delivers acute inpatient and outpatient care in general medicine and surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, urology, vascular surgery, breast surgery, endocrinology, respiratory medicine, gastroenterology, rheumatology, cardiology, palliative medicine and geriatric medicine.
Department of Neuropathology, Institute of Clinical Neurosciences
The Department provides a broad diagnostic Neuropathology service, covering surgical neuropathology (including intraoperative smears and frozen sections), CSF cytology, muscle and nerve biopsy pathology (including enzyme histochemistry, muscle protein immunohistochemistry, morphometry, and electron microscopy), electron microscopic examination of other specimens for diagnosis of neurological disease (e.g. skin biopsies in suspected CADASIL, blood samples in suspected ceroid lipofuscinosis); post-mortem examinations (including 'high-risk' examinations, e.g. in cases of suspected Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease); macroscopic and microscopic examination of fixed brains, spinal columns and spinal cords. The service does not cover ophthalmic pathology.
Staff in the Department also perform muscle and nerve biopsies on referred patients, usually in neurosurgical theatres at Frenchay Hospital, under general anaesthesia.
Workload
|
|
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
|
Neurosurgical biopsies (excl muscle & nerve) |
651 |
644 |
708 |
703 |
654 |
|
Intraoperative frozen sections |
20 |
12 |
22 |
19 |
14 |
|
Intraoperative smears |
200 |
221 |
249 |
261 |
225 |
|
CSF cytospins |
534 |
485 |
530 |
510 |
439 |
|
Muscle/nerve biopsies: specimen only |
82 |
101 |
116 |
120 |
101 |
|
Muscle/nerve biopsies: patient referral |
40 |
45 |
32 |
32 |
41 |
|
Autopsies by Neuropathology |
52 |
39 |
36 |
29 |
27 |
|
Referred brains (excluding Brain Bank) |
64 |
71 |
79 |
91 |
114 |
|
South West Dementia Brain Bank brains |
18 |
15 |
15 |
23 |
33 |
|
EM specimens |
134 |
152 |
162 |
151 |
154 |
|
Total separate requests (excluding Brain Bank) |
1449 |
1400 |
1567 |
1503 |
1425 |
Consultants
- Dr N Cohen (consultant Senior Lecturer in the Department of Neuropathology, with a 0.5wte clinical service commitment and a 0.5wte academic commitment in University of Bristol. She is MB ChB Programme Deputy Director in the University and has a particular interest in medical education. Her research interests cover developmental neuropathology, epilepsy, neurooncology and neurodegenerative disease).
- Dr K Kurian (full-time consultant in the Department of Neuropathology, with a particular research interest in brain tumours. She is in charge of the Brain Tumour Bank South West (BRASH)).
- Professor S Love (consultant with 0.5wte clinical service commitment and a 0.5wte academic commitment in University of Bristol (in which he is Head of the Section of Clinical Neurosciences). His principal research interest is in dementia and cerebrovascular disease. He is Director of the South West Dementia Brain Bank. Also see videos here and here).
Educational Supervisors
- Professor S Love
Trainees and Posts
The Department has a single training post for specialist training in neuropathology.
Facilities
- Personal work space
- Personal computer
- Personal microscope
- Internet access
- Text books and journals
- Library access with Athens
Educational Programme
The Department offers comprehensive training in neuropathology, with one-to-one teaching and guidance in diagnostic methods and approaches, opportunities to participate in regular multidisciplinary team meetings and both clinical and research seminars, and outstanding opportunities for research, whether in the Dementia Research Group, the Multiple Sclerosis and Stem Cell Group, the Functional Neurosurgery Group or in collaboration with groups studying brain tumours, epilepsy and a range of other neurological diseases.
Further Information
For further information please see the British Neuropathological Society website.