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Neurology

Brain, Nervous System,
and Spine Care

For anyone experiencing a health condition related to the brain, nervous system, or spine, proper and quality care and attention is needed, and the Care New England neurologists are ready to provide an array of treatment.

They are supported by advanced diagnostic and interventional technology, including electroencephalograms (EEG), CT, MRI, and digital angiography, as well as being members of an integrated team within the Care New England network.

Please be advised that this location is a provider-based clinic and both a physician and facility fee will be assessed, which may result in a higher out-of-pocket expense.

Contact Information

Kent Hospital
455 Toll Gate Road
Warwick, RI 02886
P: (401) 737-7000
P: 1 (800) 892-9291

Integrated Services and Care

kent-neurology-man-woman-beach

With Care New England, patients become part of a multidisciplinary team made up of neurologists and other specialists from many facets of the health system who work to develop a complete diagnosis and partner with patients and their families for a care plan that meets their individualized needs.

These include providers who work closely with and jointly between Butler Hospital and Kent Hospital.

Minimally invasive techniques are many times utilized in order to assist patients to have faster recovery, as well as new advances in minimally invasive brain surgery.

Diagnosis

Care New England has the ability and expertise to utilize advanced techniques in order to help diagnose various conditions using some of the following diagnostic tools:

  • CT
  • MRI
  • Electroencephalography (EEG)
  • Electromyography (EMG)
  • Lumbar Puncture (spinal tap)
  • Neuropsychological testing

Treatments

Some treatments that are used, but not limited to, include:

  • Injections – Used for dystonia and other neurologic conditions
  • Medication to manage or treat symptoms
  • Physical, occupational, and speech therapy for neurological impairments such as Parkinson’s disease, ALS, and multiple sclerosis

Butler Hospital Programs

Memory Disorders

Beyond the clinical effects of diseases like Alzheimer’s and other dementias, these disorders also profoundly affect an individual’s independence and quality of life as well as the lives of caregivers and others within the support system. The Memory & Aging Program at Butler Hospital is an outpatient program that provides evaluation, consultation, information, and resources for support, access to clinical trials and is a national leader in groundbreaking research.

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Movement Disorders

The Movement Disorders Program at Butler Hospital specializes in caring for patients with Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, gait disorders, tremors, drug-induced movement disorders, ataxias, dystonias, and other movement disorders. The Parkinson’s Information and Referral Center at Kent Hospital is the only resource center in Rhode Island sponsored by the American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA). It serves as a resource for those with Parkinson’s disease (PD), their loved ones, and health care providers. 

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Kent Hospital Programs

Multiple Sclerosis

The Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Center of Care New England provides a comprehensive and integrated program for the evaluation and treatment of multiple sclerosis and related conditions.

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Stroke Care

The Advanced Primary Stroke Center at Kent Hospital is committed to providing a comprehensive, state-of-the-art approach to the diagnosis and treatment of stroke and increasing community awareness of the danger of stroke. 

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Neurological Conditions

Cerebrovascular Disorders
  • Aneurysm - A cerebral, or brain, aneurysm is a bulge caused by a loss of muscle tissue in the artery wall. Most aneurysms are small, cause no symptoms and do not rupture.
  • Arteriovenous malformation (AVM) - Abnormal entanglement of blood vessels in the brain or spine. Symptoms are rarely seen, and it is usually safe, but it can be life threatening if an entangled vein becomes enlarged from excessive blood flow, causing it to bleed and rupture. Symptoms of this rupture include severe and sudden headache or back pain, nausea and vomiting, stiff neck, ringing in the ear or weakness in the legs or arms.
  • Cerebral vein thrombosis – Veins in the brain become obstructed or narrow her blood is not drained, which can result in dysfunction or a stroke as well pressure within the brain.
  • Hypercoagulable states – Blood clotting disorders causing clotting in arteries and veins that are genetic or acquired.
  • Intracerebral hemorrhage or hematoma – Blood clots in the brain and occurs due to pressure on the brain due to swelling or head trauma. It may begin as areas of bleeding.
  • Carotid artery conditions - Moyamoya disease, carotid, and vertebral artery stenosis, carotid-cavernous fistula
  • Strokes - A stroke is a brain injury that occurs when the brain's blood supply is interrupted. Without oxygen and nutrients from blood, brain cells start to die rapidly, resulting in a sudden loss of function.
  • Subarachnoid hemorrhage – Often presented as an extreme and sudden headache, bleeding occurs between the brain and surrounding space due to a rupture of the blood vessels.
Dementia and Behavioral Neurology
  • Alzheimer’s disease and memory loss – Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia. It is a progressive, degenerative disease that involves the abnormal buildup of amyloid plaques and tau tangles which contribute to the destruction of nerve cells in the brain. Individuals with AD experience progressive and irreversible loss in cognition, including language and memory. Changes in mood, sleep-wake cycles, and behavior can also be seen.  Memory loss is usually one of the first symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.
  • Frontotemporal dementia – Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is caused by degeneration of the frontal and/or temporal lobes of the brain.  FTD causes a gradual, progressive decline in behavior, language, and sometimes motor function, and is one of the most common causes of early-onset dementia.   
  • Lewy body disease – Dementia with Lewy bodies is among the most common forms of degenerative dementia in older adults. It is characterized clinically by deficits in attention and visuospatial function; fluctuating cognition; visual hallucinations; rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, and spontaneous motor features of parkinsonism. Other associated symptoms can include falls, syncope, autonomic dysfunction, neuroleptic sensitivity, delusions, hallucinations in other modalities, and depression.
  • Primary progressive aphasia – Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a clinical syndrome that involves a gradual progression of language impairment, including the loss of ability to produce and/or understand language. This can manifest as difficulty with word finding, comprehension, or sentence construction.  PPA can affect other cognitive functions as the disease progresses, however, language dysfunction remains the most prominent cognitive impairment. 
  • Vascular dementia – Vascular dementia is associated with problems in the circulation of blood to the brain, or cerebrovascular disease, and is the second most common type of dementia.  Vascular dementia is typically recognized as dementia following a stroke or as dementia in a patient whose brain imaging shows vascular changes without a clinical history of stroke. Patients with vascular dementia tend to have greater impairments in executive function, speed, and visual memory on cognitive testing.  Risk factors include high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, history of transient ischemic attacks, and heart rhythm abnormalities.
  • CADASIL – Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is an autosomal dominantly inherited disease of the small blood vessels in the brain.  CADASIL causes strokes and other injuries to the subcortical region of the brain and is caused by a mutation in the NOTCH3 gene on chromosome 19.  CADASIL is recognized as an important cause of stroke in young adults, and strokes caused by CADASIL usually occur initially between the ages of 30 and 50.
Epilepsy
  • Seizures – Electrical pulses overstimulate a neuron, which causes other surrounding neurons to react in the brain. Its normal behavior is disrupted, which can cause uncontrollable movements within the body or emotions.
Facial Pain and Nerve Conditions
  • Trigeminal neuralgia - Causes severe pain in the face or head, typically triggered by the constricting of a nearby blood vessel, which puts pressure on the nerve. Pain affects eyes, lips, nose, scalp, forehead, cheek, or jaw. Attacks may occur spontaneously or due to any facial stimulation, and impacts women more than men.
  • Bell’s palsy – One side of the face droops due to temporary paralysis after facial muscles become weak, swollen, or inflamed. It can be caused as a reaction to a viral infection, rarely occurs more than once, and symptoms usually resolve on their own, but physical therapy can be used as a treatment as well as medication.
  • Hemifacial spasm - Neuromuscular disorder resulting in frequent uncontrollable muscular contractions on one side of the face that often starts with twitching around the eye and the mouth may droop. It could be brought on by stress, lights, stress, and other visual stimulants and affects middle-aged men and women most often.
Headache and Nerve-Related Pain
  • Migraine – Severe headache that can result in nausea or sensitivity to light or sound.
  • Cluster headache – Sharp headaches that occur in timing patterns usually around an eye or on one side of the head.
  • Hemicrania
  • Idiopathic intracranial hypertension – Headaches and vision loss can occur, along with other body pain, when spinal fluid builds up around the brain and spinal cord.
  • Ateritis – Inflammation of blood vessels in the brain cause headaches, fevers, pain, and vision loss, and can cause reduction of blood flow to the body.
  • Fibromyalgia - Musculoskeletal disorder causing pain around certain tender points throughout the body.
Migraine-Related Conditions
  • Abdominal migraine – Stomach pains and cramps occur. Children with abdominal migraines can evolve to have migraine headaches as adults.
  • Recurrent vertigo – Spinning dizziness occurs or change of perception of movement due to dysfunction of or damage to the vestibular nerve or other structures in the cerebellum or brain stem.
  • Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome – Reduced blood volume to the brain caused by standing up can cause someone to feel lightheaded, dizzy, blurred vision, weak, rapid heartbeat, and have other symptoms.
Movement Disorders
  • Parkinson’s disease – Neurodegenerative disorder that impacts movement and causes tremors, rigid movement or stiffness, and imbalance.
  • Essential tremor – Nervous system disorder that causes a tremor of the hand, which can affect the ability to write, drink and handle objects.
  • Dystonia – Nervous system disorder that causes muscle contractions that result in abnormal or repetitive movements or body postures.
  • Cervical dystonia (torticollis)- Contraction of the neck muscles that causes the head to turn or twist.
  • Blepharospasm (eye twitching)
  • Huntington’s disease – Inherited progressive nervous system disorder that causes jerking or writing of the body, as well as psychiatric conditions and dementia. It is caused by a disorder of a certain gene.
  • Ataxia – Damage to the cerebellum of the brain causes body movements to cease.
  • Machado-Joseph Disease and spinocerebellar ataxias – Genetic neurologic disorders causing muscle use to be lost due to the degeneration of cells in parts of the brain and spinal cord.
Neuroimmunology
  • Multiple Sclerosis – Chronic disease of the central nervous system where the body attacks itself by mistake and can cause severe changes in vision and perception, color distortion, pain and loss of vision, difficulty walking, and other abnormal feelings such as numbness.
  • Neuromyelitis Optica – Inflammatory disorder of the central nervous system where myelin degradation causes damage in the optic nerves and spinal cord.
  • Optic Neuritis – Inflammatory condition where the loss of myelin causes a sudden loss of vision.
  • Neurosarcoidosis – Inflammatory disease resulting in neurological symptoms such as facial palsy. It often impacts other organs, such as the lungs.
  • Demyelinating Disorders – Myelin is a protective layer around nerves, and disorders caused by inflammation, a virus, damage to blood vessels in the brain, genetics, or a lack of oxygen can cause muscle spasms, loss of vision, muscle fatigue or rigidity, and other bodily changes.
Neuromuscular Disorders
  • Muscular Dystrophy – Inherited diseases that cause the muscles to weaken over time and can affect other parts of the body.
  • Myasthenia Gravis – Autoimmune disorder involving muscular weakness throughout the body, including in limbs, eyes, and lungs.
  • Spinal Muscular Atrophy – Muscle weakness and withering due to the degeneration of particular cells in the brainstem and spine.
  • Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) – Severely debilitating disorder causing muscle weakness, disability, and death due to degeneration of neurons in the frontal lobe of the brain.
  • Lambert-Eaton Myasthenic Syndrome – Muscle weakness caused by the immune system attacking the area where nerves and muscle connect.
  • Myopathy – Diseases causing muscle weakness.
  • Polymyositis – Inflammatory myopathy resulting in skeletal muscle weakness and muscle inflammation.
  • Dermatomyositis – Inflammatory myopathy that causes skin rashes.
Peripheral Nerve Disorders
  • Carpal Tunnel Syndrome - The carpal tunnel is the area inside the wrist that runs from the forearm to the hand. The condition occurs when the tendons and nerves inside the tunnel become compressed, which causes pain, weakness, and tingling or numbness in the hand. Treatment can include pain and anti-inflammatory medication, resting of the hand, splints or braces, steroid injections, or slight surgical procedures.
  • Polyneuropathies – Many nerves of the body malfunction, which can be caused by infections, drug use, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, and other diseases.
  • Ulnar Neuropathy – Pain due to nerve strain or squeezing, usually in the elbow at the wrist.
  • Radiculopathies - pinched nerves
  • Brachial Plexopathy – Damage to the area where nerve roots from the spine and neck are located and connect to muscles in the shoulders and arms.
  • Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease – Inherited disorder caused by gene mutations that cause weakness in the leg and foot deformities, such as hammertoes, deficiencies in sensory function.
  • Guillain-Barré Syndrome – Paralyzing muscle weakness and muscle reflexes that are caused by or preceded by an infection.
  • Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) – Autoimmune disorder where nerve myelin is attacked by the immune system and causes tingling in the arms and legs, muscle weakening, difficulty walking, and loss of sensory function.
Spinal Cord Disease
  • Myelopathy – Spinal cord injury that causes subsequent compression of the spine.
  • Transverse Myelitis – An acquired neuro-inflammatory disorder of the spinal cord that results in sudden weakness, change in sensory function, and bladder or bowel dysfunction.
Sports-Related Neurology
  • Concussion – Mild injury to the brain from physical force or from rapid movement of the head that causes loss of consciousness or confusion or amnesia.
  • Head Trauma – Severe injury to the brain that can have long-lasting medical impacts or permanent damage to brain function.
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Resources

Migraines

Stress May Cause Migraines

Kevin E. Baill, MD

Stress is not the only factor leading to the uptick in migraines, he says, but adding to the problem are recent lifestyle changes caused by the pandemic and increased screen time on technology devices...

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Memory Care

How Memory Care Helps With Alzheimer's D...

Care New England

Alzheimer's disease is an irreversible disease that affects the brain by affecting the brain cells progressively. Patients of this disease typically suffer memory loss and potentially even the ability...

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Movement Disorders

Ask The Expert: Movement Disorders

Care New England

There is no known connection between drug abuse and either Parkinson's disease (PD) or multiple sclerosis (MS). There was a particular illegal opiate-like intravenous drug used in the 1980's, which ca...

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