What does neurosurgery do?

Neurosurgery is a progressive field of medicine that deals with surgical methods of diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the nervous system. The list of pathologies treated by neurosurgery is quite extensive, but more often specialists in this field deal with vascular diseases, the consequences of craniocerebral injuries and pathologies of the spinal cord and peripheral nerves.

A little from the history of neurosurgery

Neurosurgery is considered to be a relatively young science, which separated into a separate field of medicine only in the 20-ies of the XX century. However, it can be said that the first neurosurgical operations were carried out in antiquity. For example, in Hippocarat's book On the Wounds of the Head, which was written more than 2000 years ago, a detailed description of the trepanation of the skull is given. Operations on the skull were also conducted in the X-XI centuries in Kievan Rus, as evidenced by numerous archaeological finds.

Diagnosis and treatment of neurological diseases

If you have a suspicion of any disease of the spine or brain - then you need a consultation of a neurosurgeon. With diseases of the nervous system you can not joke, so do not delay the visit to the doctor. During the consultation, the doctor will listen to your complaints, carry out an examination and the necessary studies, and on the basis of the data obtained will diagnose you and prescribe the most effective treatment.

Neurosurgery is closely associated with such areas of clinical medicine as neurophysiology, radiology and radiology, and widely uses their methods of diagnosis and treatment. So, more often for diagnostics of neurological diseases such researches are conducted:

• MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) of the brain or spinal cord
• Ultrasound of the brain
• CT scan (computed tomography) of the brain
• Echoencephalography (EchoEG)
• Angiography
• Radiography of the spine
• Sometimes it may be necessary to consult other narrowly specialized specialists

A neurosurgical operation can be prescribed for such diseases:

• Various injuries of the central nervous system
• Damage to peripheral nerves
• Infections and other pathologies of the nervous system
• Malignant or benign tumor of the spinal cord and brain (epidermoid, hemangioblastoma, meningeoma, pituitary adenoma, craniopharyngoma, etc.)
• Diseases of the spine (intervertebral hernia, radiculitis, osteochondrosis, discitis, spinal cord compression, etc.)
• Epilepsy
• Parkinson's disease
• Stroke and other circulatory disorders of the brain (aneurysm, stenosis of blood vessels, thrombosis, arteriovenous malformations of the brain or spinal cord).

Neurosurgical operations can be divided into these types:

• Neuro-oncological operations (removal of tumors of the brain and spinal cord, removal of tumors of the spine, removal of tumors of the peripheral nervous system)
• Spinal surgery (spondylodesis, microdiscectomy, corporectomy, corporodesis, stabilization of spinal deformities, vertebroplasty)
• Operations with craniocerebral trauma (removal of hematomas, treatment of fractures, shunting of the brain)
• Surgery on the peripheral nervous system (carpal tunnel surgery).

An important direction of neurosurgery is neurooncology , which deals with surgical treatment of tumors of the brain and spinal cord. A significant breakthrough in the treatment of neurological diseases was the introduction of a stereotaxic method that allows neurosurgeons to carry out operations in deep regions of the brain without affecting neighboring areas. The section of neurosurgery, which is hammered by similar operations, is called stereotactic neurosurgery .

Currently, neurosurgery is one of the most progressive areas of medicine. With the development of technology and equipment, the introduction of new techniques and the accumulation of experience, it has now become possible to recover previously incurable patients.