Future of neurosurgery - opinions

[Guest]

(05-25-2017, 02:37 AM)Guest Wrote:

(05-24-2017, 10:50 PM)Guest Wrote: Cerebrovascular is done. No idea why all these people are people are freaking out to be trained at these institutions that clip everything. Five years down the road, you are going to be considered a hazardous dinosaur. Endovascular is (unfortunately) the future.

Spine will always be there.

Tumor will always be there, too...but rad onc is taking away more and more, which in my opinion is a good thing. Who honestly wants to spend all day picking away GBM?

Trauma and spine will always be there. Neurosurgery isn't going anywhere. If anything, we'll be working better hours because of it.

I am a senior yet youngish attending at a major academic center and I mostly agree with this assessment. I really enjoyed my open vascular training and experience but saw the writing on the wall 10 years ago and chose to be a spine surgeon instead. Endovascular may be fun if you are a neurologist, but if you are a surgeon firing in screws and cages is way more fun. I do not do many brain tumors any more but I think theres always going to be a role for taking out skull base meningiomas etc, but the volume is limited. Maybe self-driving cars will do away with trauma but there will still be elderly patients who fall down and get subdurals and central cords. 

Finally, you should know there are ongoing discussions of spinning off spine as a separate residency. as much as i take pride in calling myself a neurosurgeon, i think this may happen and perhaps may be a good thing. 

good luck to you all...

Well...thanks for the input...But, if you really enjoy firing screws and cages and this is the only thing you do/love to do -based on your post- then you haven’t seen the writing on the wall 15 years ago and should have gone into ortho instead. Seriously to all people here...if all what you want to is spine then go for ortho...better residency hours, personalities and SHORTER residency.

[Guest]

(04-16-2019, 07:01 PM)Guest Wrote: Well...thanks for the input...But, if you really enjoy firing screws and cages and this is the only thing you do/love to do -based on your post- then you haven’t seen the writing on the wall 15 years ago and should have gone into ortho instead. Seriously to all people here...if all what you want to is spine then go for ortho...better residency hours, personalities and SHORTER residency.

Idk, ortho spends a lot of time not doing spine, and then they tack on a spine fellowship at the end. 

As for the future, there are four technologies/procedures that need to stay in our territory: interventional neuroradiology, gamma knife, laser interstitial thermal therapy, and MRI-guided focused ultrasound. These cannot be dismissed and written off by our specialty, otherwise we will slowly become the surgeons who only do spine/trauma, and then handle complications caused by neurologists, radiologists and radiation oncologists. 

These are our patients.

[Guest]

(04-16-2019, 08:08 PM)Guest Wrote:

(04-16-2019, 07:01 PM)Guest Wrote: Well...thanks for the input...But, if you really enjoy firing screws and cages and this is the only thing you do/love to do -based on your post- then you haven’t seen the writing on the wall 15 years ago and should have gone into ortho instead. Seriously to all people here...if all what you want to is spine then go for ortho...better residency hours, personalities and SHORTER residency.

Idk, ortho spends a lot of time not doing spine, and then they tack on a spine fellowship at the end. 

As for the future, there are four technologies/procedures that need to stay in our territory: interventional neuroradiology, gamma knife, laser interstitial thermal therapy, and MRI-guided focused ultrasound. These cannot be dismissed and written off by our specialty, otherwise we will slowly become the surgeons who only do spine/trauma, and then handle complications caused by neurologists, radiologists and radiation oncologists. 

These are our patients.

I think neurosurgeons are savvy enough to adjust with the times unlike our colleagues in CT and general surgery. Look at how we've adjusted to endovascular, radiosurgery, etc. Our track record of adapting and innovating will secure our turf as long as we stay smart and ambitious.