Neurosurgery Exam Questions Practice Test

Description

Neurosurgery is a medical specialty that involves the surgical treatment of conditions affecting the nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord, and nerves. Neurosurgeons use a range of surgical techniques, such as open surgery, minimally invasive surgery, and endovascular surgery, to diagnose and treat a variety of conditions, including brain tumors, spinal cord injuries, herniated discs, epilepsy, and Parkinson's disease. They also collaborate with other medical specialists, such as neurologists, oncologists, and rehabilitation specialists, to provide comprehensive care for patients with nervous system disorders.

Neurosurgery of the spine covers the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine. Some indications for spine surgery include spinal cord compression resulting from trauma, arthritis of the spinal discs, or spondylosis. In cervical cord compression, patients may have difficulty with gait, balance issues, and/or numbness and tingling in the hands or feet. Spondylosis is the condition of spinal disc degeneration and arthritis that may compress the spinal canal. This condition can often result in bone-spurring and disc herniation. Power drills and special instruments are often used to correct any compression problems of the spinal canal. Disc herniations of spinal vertebral discs are removed with special rongeurs. This procedure is known as a discectomy. Generally once a disc is removed it is replaced by an implant which will create a bony fusion between vertebral bodies above and below. Instead, a mobile disc could be implanted into the disc space to maintain mobility. This is commonly used in cervical disc surgery. At times instead of disc removal a Laser discectomy could be used to decompress a nerve root. This method is mainly used for lumbar discs. Laminectomy is the removal of the Lamina portion of the vertebrae of the spine in order to make room for the compressed nerve tissue.

Radiology assisted spine surgery uses minimally-invasive procedures. They include the techniques of vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty in which certain types of spinal fractures are managed. Potentially unstable spines will need spine fusions. At present these procedures include complex instrumentation. Spine fusions could be performed as open surgery or as minimally invasive surgery. Anterior cervical diskectomy and fusion is a common surgery that is performed for disc disease of cervical spine. However, each method described above may not work in all patients. Therefore, careful selection of patients for each procedure is important. It has to be noted that if there is prior permanent neural tissue damage spinal surgery may not take away the symptoms.

Surgery for chronic pain is a sub branch of functional neurosurgery. Some of the techniques include implantation of deep brain stimulators, spinal cord stimulators, peripheral stimulators and pain pumps.

Surgery of the peripheral nervous system is also possible, and includes the very common procedures of carpal tunnel decompression and peripheral nerve transposition. Numerous other types of nerve entrapment conditions and other problems with the peripheral nervous system are treated as well

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