The Norton Children’s board-certified neurosurgical team is led by Thomas M. Moriarty, M.D., Ph.D., a recognized leader in the field with extensive experience and specialized training. Our physicians have the sophisticated tools and skills to give you and your child a precise diagnosis and treatment plan for a spinal tumor that minimizes risk, so your child can get back to being a kid again.

Norton Children’s Cancer Institute, affiliated with the UofL School of Medicine, is Kentucky’s only multidisciplinary pediatric brain and spinal cord tumor treatment program. Our program provides specialized care for children with brain and spinal cord tumors using a team approach. A neuroradiologist, neuro-oncologist, neurosurgeons, radiation oncologists, neurologist, pathologists and a psychologist are all part of the team — working to offer top-notch care and the quality of life after treatment.

Innovation happens here. We have clinical trials using cancer vaccines for children with relapsed brain tumors.

Spinal Tumors in Children Versus Adults

Liam Atherton won the Bluegrass BMX championship last fall hours after finishing chemotherapy to conquer a spine tumor that threatened his mobility.

Louisville boy beats spine tumor and the BMX competition

Spinal tumors in children are different from those in adults. Our pediatric specialists have expertise in caring for kids with these tumors. Outcomes for children with spinal tumors have improved significantly in the past two decades. Most children with spinal tumors are long-term survivors due to many advancements made in the field, including improved surgical techniques, chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Spinal Tumor Treatment

Our multidisciplinary team of pediatric spinal tumor specialists cares for every child in the pediatric brain and spine tumor program. These children also benefit from treatment in our integrated rehabilitation facility. The rehab team includes physical and occupational therapists who begin therapy as early as possible during cancer treatment to give patients the greatest benefit. We are committed to providing high-quality treatment for each child while supporting the family’s physical and psychosocial needs.

Why Norton Children’s Neuroscience Institute?

• The Norton Children’s Hospital Comprehensive Epilepsy Center is a Level 4 epilepsy center, the highest rating available from the National Association of Epilepsy Centers. Norton Children’s Hospital has held this designation since 2013.
• We are the first in Kentucky and among the first in the nation to use neurostimulation in a pediatric patient.
• Regional neurology care is available for children across Kentucky and Southern Indiana. We travel to clinics in Bowling Green, Campbellsville, Corbin, Elizabethtown, Frankfort, Owensboro and Paducah, Kentucky; and Evansville, Indiana. We also perform a number of telemedicine visits each week.
• The specialists with Norton Children’s Neuroscience Institute, affiliated with the UofL School of Medicine, use state-of-the-art technology to treat epilepsy, uncontrollable seizures and deep brain tumors in children who, in the past, would not be candidates for surgery, including:
  • Visualase: Technology that allows neurosurgeons to perform MRI-guided laser ablation surgery. Fewer than two dozen pediatric hospitals in the U.S. offer this technology.
  • Surgical Theater: Virtual reality technology that creates an immersive 3D view of a patient’s brain, allowing neurosurgeons, the patient and family to see inside the skull and brain to get a greater understanding of the condition and impact of potential procedures. Norton Children’s Hospital is the first hospital in the region to use this technology.
• We offer dedicated multidisciplinary clinics for brain tumors, traumatic brain injuries, spina bifida, craniofacial injuries and disorders, epilepsy, muscular dystrophy, spasticity, headache/migraine, autism and neurocutaneous disorders.
• Our multidisciplinary craniofacial program was the first established in the Midwest.
• We offer a neurogenetics clinic to evaluate and treat children with neurogenetic syndromes.
• We have a neuropsychology program that specializes in the evaluation of children and teens with a variety of neurological, neurodevelopmental and medical conditions, including brain tumors and epilepsy.
• Outpatient neurology facilities in downtown Louisville are equipped with in-office electroencephalography (EEG) capabilities and laboratory services in the same building, creating a streamlined, family-centered environment.
• We offer the region’s first clinic to treat children with immune-mediated neurological disorders.