Brain conditions Dr Tollesson treats in Brisbane
Every condition page covers what it is, the symptoms it causes, how it is diagnosed, the treatment options including monitoring, and what recovery looks like. Start with the condition named in your referral letter or scan report.
Greenslopes Private Hospital, Brisbane
Watkins Medical Centre, Spring Hill, or telehealth
A current GP or specialist referral is needed
At a glance
Eight
One page for each, from diagnosis to recovery.
Watch or treat
Monitoring is an active plan with a review date, not a delay.
Yes
Seen at Spring Hill; surgery at the Queensland Children’s Hospital.
Welcome
Bring the scans and letters; the consultation starts from the beginning.
Eight conditions, one page each
Written for the person who has just been given a diagnosis, and for the family member reading over their shoulder. Nothing here replaces the conversation at your appointment; it is meant to make that conversation easier.
Brain tumours
Gliomas, metastases and other growths inside the skull, benign or malignant, treated with microsurgery, neuronavigation and an oncology team.
Meningioma and skull base tumours
Usually slow-growing tumours arising from the brain’s coverings or the base of the skull. Many are monitored; some are removed.
Pituitary tumours
Growths in the hormone gland at the base of the brain, most often removed through the nose with an endoscope, with an endocrinologist involved.
Brain aneurysms
A weak, ballooning point in an artery wall, treated by clipping, or by coiling or stenting with an interventional neuroradiology colleague, or monitored if it is small.
AVMs and cavernomas
Abnormal tangles or clusters of blood vessels that can bleed. Options include embolisation, radiosurgery, microsurgical removal or observation.
Hydrocephalus
A build-up of cerebrospinal fluid inside the brain, confirmed with imaging or overnight pressure monitoring and treated with shunt surgery.
Chiari malformation and arachnoid cysts
The lower brain sitting too low in the skull, or fluid-filled cysts on its surface. Many are watched; decompression or fenestration when symptoms demand it.
Trigeminal neuralgia and hemifacial spasm
Electric-shock facial pain or one-sided facial twitching from a vessel pressing on a nerve. Medication first; microvascular decompression when it is not enough.
A decision to watch is a decision, not a delay.
Many brain conditions are best managed with scheduled scans rather than an operation. Each condition page sets out when watching is the right answer.
Small meningiomas, small unruptured aneurysms, cavernomas that have not bled, arachnoid cysts and many Chiari malformations are found on scans done for other reasons and cause no symptoms at all. For these, the risk of an operation can be higher than the risk of leaving the condition alone, and the right plan is an interval MRI at an agreed time, with a clear description of what would change the advice.
Being told to watch can feel like being told to wait. It is not. It is an active plan with a review date, and it can be revisited whenever symptoms change or the scans do.
Second opinions
If you have been given a plan elsewhere and would like it explained again, or explained differently, that is a reasonable thing to ask for. Bring the scans and the letters, and the consultation will go through them from the beginning.
The scan is on the screen, the options are set out on equal terms, and nothing is booked until you have had time to think.
If your child has been referred
Dr Tollesson treats babies, children and adolescents at the Queensland Children’s Hospital and is a member of the International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery.
The conditions seen in children overlap with those above, in particular hydrocephalus, arachnoid cysts, Chiari malformation and brain tumours, and the same pages apply. What differs is the setting: consultations are at the Spring Hill rooms with a parent present, surgery is at the Queensland Children’s Hospital, and the child’s paediatrician is kept involved throughout.
Paediatric neurosurgery is also described on the practice website, Brain and Spine Surgery Queensland.
Dr Gert TollessonNeurosurgeon, Brisbane
Not sure which page applies to you?
Call the rooms. They can tell you which condition page matches your referral, and whether a consultation is the right next step.
Request a consultation
Send your details and the rooms will call you to arrange a time. Referrals are triaged as they arrive.
Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 4:30pm. No referral yet? The rooms will explain what to ask your GP for.
Before your appointment
What happens from referral to follow-up, and what it costs.