Anatomy vs the patients?

Started by Armadillos
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Armadillos

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Was curious what you all thought about this, neuro is one of the fields I'm considering but I've discovered I really dislike neuro anatomy. So when I would see my neuro patients I would really enjoy talking to and examining them, but when it came time for rounds I was completely useless at knowing the relevant anatomy and was frankly pretty bored talking about anatomy. One of my attendings suggested you shouldn't do neuro unless you really like the anatomy, but I'm wondering if liking the patients is enough to overcome it.
 
What exactly do you dislike about neuroanatomy? You don't have to know all of neuroanatomy, but you do need to know relevant parts.
 
Eh, I'm not a huge fan of anatomy microminutae either, although it is fun as trivia. You do have to learn it to localize during your training, but in many subspecialties you do not need to use it on an hourly, or even daily basis. Heck, if you go into neurocritical care, it's all supratentorial/infratentorial/left side/right side (only sort of kidding).

You do need to like the nervous system, though, and being completely disinterested in neuroanatomy may suggest a larger underlying problem. Neuroanatomy is, at its root, the study of the way the nervous system is organized. If you don't find that to be cool at some level, then you might be in for some trouble.
 
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typhoonegator said:
Eh, I'm not a huge fan of anatomy microminutae either, although it is fun as trivia. You do have to learn it to localize during your training, but in many subspecialties you do not need to use it on an hourly, or even daily basis. Heck, if you go into neurocritical care, it's all supratentorial/infratentorial/left side/right side (only sort of kidding).

You do need to like the nervous system, though, and being completely disinterested in neuroanatomy may suggest a larger underlying problem. Neuroanatomy is, at its root, the study of the way the nervous system is organized. If you don't find that to be cool at some level, then you might be in for some trouble.
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Yeah that makes sense, the thing thats tough for me as a med student is that it's hard for me to tell if i don't like the anatomy just because its still very difficult for me so I'm always feeling completely incompetent or if I actually inherently don't enjoy learning it, guess I will do another neuro rotation and time will tell.
 
I actually managed to learn some neuroanatomy by reading radiology texts which taught me image interpretation at the same time. Don't know if that had help you.
 
Armadillos said:
Was curious what you all thought about this, neuro is one of the fields I'm considering but I've discovered I really dislike neuro anatomy. So when I would see my neuro patients I would really enjoy talking to and examining them, but when it came time for rounds I was completely useless at knowing the relevant anatomy and was frankly pretty bored talking about anatomy. One of my attendings suggested you shouldn't do neuro unless you really like the anatomy, but I'm wondering if liking the patients is enough to overcome it.
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Part of neuro rounding will always be "localize the lesion". If you know your stroke syndromes well, that will accomplish 60% of rounding neuroanatomy. You definitely will need to know the pertinent information that will appear on board exams.

Do you need to know that one midline nucleus in the midbrain controls both levators muscles? Not unless you become a neuroopthalmologist and frankly, I've never seen such a question appear on the in service exam.

If you like neurology, you'll adjust and just learn it over time.

As I have said before, I never felt as if knowing every single muscle, tendon, joint, ligament in the body in addition to their biomechanics was simple, but that does not stop people from nearly killing each other for ortho spots. But then again, they get paid much more than neurologists 😉
 
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