Sydney Adventist Hospital (the San) in Wahroonga has launched Australia’s most advanced neurosurgery theatre, a facility only the second of its kind in the world outside the United States.

The new interventional neuroradiology theatre allows clinicians to diagnose and treat patients in the same room, removing the need to transfer critically ill patients between imaging and surgical suites. For stroke and aneurysm cases, where every moment of delay causes further harm, that capability can be lifesaving.

Research published in the journal Stroke by neurologist Jeffrey Saver has quantified precisely what delay costs: during a large-vessel stroke, the brain loses approximately 1.9 million neurons per minute. Subsequent clinical studies on mechanical thrombectomy, the clot-removal procedure this theatre is built to support, found that every minute saved in treatment time yields an additional 4.2 days of healthy life.

Eliminating a single intrahospital transfer, which research shows can take between 20 and 60 minutes, can translate to months of recovered function.

Head of Neurosurgery at the San, Clinical Professor Brian Owler AM, said the theatre delivers on that urgency. “By combining advanced biplane imaging with open neurosurgery capability in a single operating room, we can diagnose and treat patients in real time, without delay,” he said.

Adventist HealthCare CEO Brett Goods highlighted the scale of need. Stroke affects more than 55,000 Australians each year and remains one of the country’s leading causes of death and disability.

The theatre was officially opened on 1 April by Member for Wahroonga, Alister Henskens SC MP, and was made possible through the generosity of San Foundation donors. The milestone builds on the San’s recent recognition as Australia’s first private hospital to receive an Angels Award from the World Stroke Organisation. For the Hornsby and Ku-ring-gai communities, it means access to world-class neurological care closer to home.