Your pain has finally gotten bad enough you are considering spine surgery to help relieve your pain. At Spine-health.com, we’re frequently asked what sort of questions you need to ask a spine surgeon to ensure that the spinal surgeon Basingstoke is the right person to do one’s spine surgery.
Patients with neck and back pain usually seek health care first of their doctor or primary care physician. However, many patients require the services of a spine specialist. A spine specialist is your physician that has completed additional many years of medical trained in the diagnosis and treatment of spinal disorders such as scoliosis, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, herniated discs, stenosis, spine injuries, fractured vertebrae, spinal deformity, tumors, infections, and congenital abnormalities. Most spine surgeons are either orthopaedic surgeons or neurosurgeons who are fellowship-trained in spine.
General Considerations
Furthermore to specific questions, there are three general considerations that will help guide your selection from different spine surgeons:
When considering surgery, every patient should retain in mind that spine surgery is nearly always an elective procedure, and there are incredibly few times that spine surgery is completely essential. You will be the only 1 who knows how bad your pain is, and the decision to proceed with surgery is completely your decision.
The surgeon’s role is to educate you and assist with the decision-making process – offering you information about your full selection of options, and describing what’s technically possible, the issue and risk of the task and potential benefits. Therefore, it is important that you decide on a surgeon who is helpful in offering you the information you will need to decide whether or not to proceed with surgery.
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Patients often ask what kind of surgeon must do their spine surgery: a neurosurgeon or orthopedic surgeon? While every specialty has a different focus in training, both are equally qualified to do the majority of spine surgery (there are some exceptions to the rule: for example, a neurosurgeon is generally better suited for tumor surgery and an orthopedic surgeon for deformity). Neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons frequently interact over a case and even in the operating room.
In addition to the usual surgical residency requirements, both neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery specialties offer fellowship programs in spine which include an additional year of training specific to spine surgery. At least, your surgeon should be board certified or board eligible in orthopedic or neurological surgery.