Free Brain Aneurysm Symposium Highlights Lessons for the Living

Interviews with featured speakers and aneurysm survivors can be arranged upon request.

CINCINNATI – The Tri-State Brain Aneurysm Support Group will present its 14 th annual symposium on Saturday, April 27, at the Vontz Center for Molecular Studies on the University of Cincinnati Medical Center campus. The free symposium, entitled "Brain Aneurysms: Lessons for the Living," will run from 8 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.

The event will provide a unique opportunity for brain aneurysm survivors and their families to meet with and learn from other survivors, caregivers, and healthcare professionals. The event will offer formal presentations and educational displays. Topics include treatment options, recovery, nutrition, and advocacy.

One out of every 50 people will develop a brain aneurysm, a bulge that develops on a weakened blood vessel wall. Although the vast majority never rupture, they can be catastrophic when they do. Forty percent of those suffering a ruptured aneurysm will die as a result; another 40 percent will survive with some neurological disability; and 20 percent will go on to live a normal life.

Primary risk factors include 1) having 2 or more immediate family members (siblings, parents, children) who have a brain aneurysm and 2) having one or more family member with an aneurysm and also having polycystic kidney disease. Smoking increases the risk that an aneurysm will develop or rupture. Featured speakers include Andrew Ringer, MD, a neurosurgeon and cerebrovascular specialist with Mayfield Brain & Spine; Mario Zuccarello, MD, a neurosurgeon and cerebrovascular specialist with UC Health; Valerie Hill, PhD, an occupational therapist with UC Health; and Kathy Haugen, RD, LD, a dietician with TriHealth.

The support group's STAR Award (Standing Together during Aneurysm Recovery) will be presented to an individual who exemplifies the group's mission "to provide information, education, encouragement and understanding to survivors and caregivers during the ongoing recovery process."

Although the event is free, participants are asked to register in advance by calling (513) 569-5346 or emailing rholden@mayfieldclinic.com.

Presenting sponsors are AESCULAP® and Mayfield Brain & Spine. The Vontz Center is located at 3125 Eden Ave., Cincinnati, 45219.

---

Mayfield Brain & Spine is the full-service patient care provider of the Mayfield Clinic, one of the nation's leading physician organizations for neurosurgical treatment, education, and research. With more than 20 specialists in neurosurgery, interventional neuroradiology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, pain management, and physical therapy, Mayfield Brain & Spine treats 25,000 patients from more than 30 states in a typical year. Mayfield physicians specialize in the treatment of back and neck pain, sciatica, Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, NPH, epilepsy, brain and spinal tumors, stroke, moyamoya, brain aneurysms, Chiari malformation, scoliosis, kyphosis, facial pain, facial twitch, trauma, concussion, spinal cord injury, and carpal tunnel. As leading innovators in their field, Mayfield physicians have pioneered surgical procedures and instrumentation that have revolutionized the medical art of neurosurgery for spinal diseases and disorders, brain tumors, and neurovascular diseases and disorders.