A Passion for Neurology

By Tammy White

When a patient experiences a stroke, a clot blocks a blood vessel to the brain, severely limiting the oxygen and blood it needs. This situation quickly becomes very dangerous and life-threatening, so time is of the essence to restore blood flow back to the brain.

Dr. Edgard Pereira is a McLeod Interventional whose skills include the ability to remove the stroke-causing clot from the brain to reestablish blood flow.

Interventional Neurology is a medical specialty that employs use of minimally invasive, image-guided techniques to treat a multitude of complex conditions of the brain, spine, head and neck. As an Interventional Neurologist, Dr. Pereira treats such conditions as brain aneurysms, brain tumors, brain vascular malformations, and acute strokes by navigating tiny catheters and instruments inside the blood vessels, a procedure known as Thrombectomy.

“Minimally invasive means the procedures can be performed with a tiny cut or incision,” said Dr. Pereira. “Many of the procedures are also endovascular, meaning inside a blood vessel, and often use radiology imaging to help me see inside the part of the body being treated.” At McLeod Regional Medical Center, these catheter interventional procedures are performed in the dedicated Neurointerventional Bi-plane X-ray Suite.

“The Bi-plane X-ray Suite is designed for the treatment of patients with neurological vascular conditions, and is equipped with advanced medical imaging technology, including two rotating cameras, one on each side of the patient, to take images simultaneously,” explained Dr. Pereira. “The cameras’ rotation allows us to study the blood vessels from multiple angles and see them in 3D.”

The inspiration to pursue a career in medicine began early for Dr. Pereira. He grew up in the South of Brazil. While recovering from surgery to remove an enflamed appendix at the age of 13, his father brought him medical magazines to enjoy. The young Pereira’s father, a local dentist, was encouraging his son’s dream of being a physician.

Dr. Pereira went on to complete medical school at the Foundation Federal Faculty of Medical Sciences of Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.

His training to become an Interventional Neurologist began with the completion of his Residency in Neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, New York, followed by an Interventional Neurology Fellowship at New York University Medical Center in New York, New York.

“My desire for this field grew from a lecture I attended in residency on complex vascular problems in the brain. What interventional cardiologists do for the heart with catheterizations, I believed I could do for the brain and decided to pursue this field,” said Dr. Pereira.

“I was trained in a prominent institution by a world-renowned mentor who inspired me to be the physician I am today. I love what I do, and I am here to provide my patients the best of care above anything else.”