What is Neurosurgery?

The short answer to this question is that neurological surgery or neurosurgery is the medical specialty that deals with the surgical treatment of disorders of the brain, spine and nerves. To amplify a bit, neurosurgeons go through an extensive period of education and training to become experts in the evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of patients who have a large variety of disorders relating to the nervous system and it’s supporting and surrounding structures which may be amenable to surgical management, including minimally invasive, microsurgical and standard surgical approaches. These disorders make up a long list ranging from ruptured discs in the spine to brain tumors and aneurysms.

This list includes the following disorders:

• Spinal ruptured and herniated discs
• Spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal canal)
• Spinal instability
• Spinal deformity
• Spinal fractures
• Spinal vascular abnormalities
• Spinal cord tumors
• Spine tumors
• Peripheral nerve injuries
• Peripheral nerve compression i.e. carpal tunnel syndrome
• Peripheral nerve tumors
• Brain tumors
• Brain vascular diseases
• • Aneurysms
  • Carotid stenosis
  • Cerebrovascular disease
  • Arterio-venous malformations
  • Brain hemorrhages
• Brain infections
• Head trauma
• • Concussions
  • Skull fractures
  • Subdural hematomas
  • Epidural hematomas
  • Intracerebral hematomas
• Skull tumors
• Skull abnormalities
• Hydrocephalus
• Spina bifida
  
• Movement disorders, i.e. Parkinson’s disease and tremor.
• Epilepsy surgery
• Pituitary tumors
• Optic nerve tumors
• Pain
• • Trigeminal neuralgia
  • Chronic pain