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Ortho vs. Neuro (For Spine)
#31
Do any residents/attendings regret going into neurosurgery? If you could go back, would you have done ortho + spine fellowship instead?
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#32
(10-13-2022, 04:59 PM)Guest Wrote: Do any residents/attendings regret going into neurosurgery? If you could go back, would you have done ortho + spine fellowship instead?

Generally speaking neurosurgery residents have considerably more spine exposure than ortho so I doubt anyone regrets doing NSG -> spine. There are plenty of orthopods that even admit that they should've done NSG. Look at the top "ortho" spine fellowships like Columbia and Leatherman which attract a lot of neurosurgery residents.
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#33
I would disagree. I have met many neurosurgeons who have said they should've went through ortho + fellowship because the residency was much easier and less time spent in training. I do agree that neurosurgery gets more spine exposure, but many people would admit that going through ortho is much easier and quicker which in the end will result in the same financial outcome as compared to neurosurgery. You can practically save 2 years (6 vs 8), which is 2 years of attending salary (~700k+ per year) as someone mentioned before.
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#34
Idk in which hospital neurosurg residency is that much harder than ortho. Maybe if you’re not at a level one trauma center. Sure the patients are sicker ergo more time in the ICU and more emergent cases but the ortho guys and gals work comparably as hard as neurosurg/CTS/vasc surg (at least in the junior years).

Chris Shaffrey discusses why there should be a spine residency: https://youtu.be/BGevf6M_lXI
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#35
I have yet to meet an ortho resident that's working neurosurgery hours all 5 years. Neurosurgery is working close to 100 hours a week for 7 years. Ortho can't compare.
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#36
I definitely didn't. The biggest difference I noticed is that the level of autonomy was considerably higher for us vs. ortho, which made residency 10x more enjoyable. This obviously differs by program, but here you're expected to do cranis for simple tumors, ACDFs, TLIFs, ALIFs, C1/C2 fusions, freehand thoracolumbar instrumentation, etc. basically on your own with minimal help by PGY-4 year. Chief year you're flying solo doing T2-pelvis with PCOs, VCRs, XLIFs, intradural tumors that would crush any ortho spine fellowship because all the attendings already know you and trust you. My friends in ortho were frequently still holding retractors for their attendings their PGY-4 year. I did an enfolded spine fellowship and got a great academic spine job, so it was only 1 extra year with considerably higher volume and way better autonomy, so I felt much more prepared for my first job.
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