Lina Raffaella Barzaghi

Dr. Lina Raffaella Barzaghi is the head of the Functional Department of Stereotactic Surgery in the Department of Neurosurgery of the IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele, headed by Professor Pietro Mortini.

After graduating from the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Milan in 1998, in 2003 she specialized in neurosurgery at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan. In 2019, she received a diploma in stereotactic and functional neurosurgery from the European Society of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery.

Dr. Barzaghi has performed about 1,200 neurosurgical operations as a first surgeon, participated in more than 2,500 operations as a second surgeon, about 500 as a teacher at a specialized school of neurosurgery and about 500 gamma knife procedures. She deals, in particular, with cranial pathology, such as brain tumors (gliomas, ependymomas, neuromas, meningiomas, brain lymphomas, brain metastases), cavernous angiomas, adult hydrocephalus and traumatic brain injuries.

In the field of functional neurosurgery, he deals with motor disorders (essential tremor, Parkinson's disease, dystonia) and facial pain (trigeminal neuralgia, occipital neuralgia, autonomic headaches and craniofacial neuropathic pain) using neuromodulation methods (deep brain stimulation) and/or stereotactic radiosurgery (gamma knife).

In terms of clinical research, she has developed microsurgical methods with intraoperative support for ultrasound, neuronavigation or stereotaxis and neurophysiological monitoring (cortical and subcortical stimulation, micro-recording and deep stimulation) to map brain functions. Then she deepened her knowledge in the field of software for merging anatomical images (ultrasound, high-field MRI and tractography) and functional (functional MRI and neurophysiological monitoring) for three-dimensional planning of surgical strategy and verification of treatment results. These technologies are used in microsurgery of brain tumors or cavernous angiomas, as well as in the treatment of arteriovenous malformations, brain tumors with a gamma knife, or in the planning of stereotactic surgery (biopsy, drainage, insertion of catheters or recording electrodes and deep brain stimulation).

She is a member of international societies such as the European Society of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery (ESSFN), the European Leksell Gamma Knife Society (ELGKS) and the International Radiosurgery Society (ISRS) and national societies such as the Society for Hospital Neurological Sciences (SSS).

Her scientific contribution (Hirsch Index-17): published in indexed international journals such as: Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, Neurosurgery, World Neurosurgery, Neurosurgical Review, Acta Neurochirurgica, American Journal of Pathology, Pituitary, Endocrine, Journal of Neurology, Neurology. Constantly participates as a speaker at national and international scientific congresses.