Neurology services are available at Nelson Hospital with visiting clinics held at Wairau Hospital every 2 months.
Additional sub-specialty services for movement disorders are held every 3 months at both sites.
Neurology
The brain co-ordinates how we think and what we do physically, as well as controlling how the body manages itself.
It sends messages to, and receives information from, the rest of the body via a complex system of nerves which use chemicals and electricity to send information.
The nervous system can be divided into the voluntary nervous system which controls what we choose to do, and the involuntary or autonomic nervous system that controls automatic functions that we do not have to think about.
A medical specialist in this field is a neurologist. A neurosurgeon is a surgeon who operates on parts of the nervous system. The two specialists often work together, depending on the problem.
Neurological conditions include (but are not limited to):
- epilepsy
- headache
- motor neurone disease
- movement disorders including Parkinson's Disease
- multiple sclerosis (MS)
- myopathy
- neuropathy
- stroke.