Elective neurosurgery

[john2f]

Hi everyone

I'm an IMG and I will do a 4 weeks elective in neurosurgery. I am searching for students that have experienced an elective in neurosurgery or who have worked with electives student in this area.

I wanted to ask you details about the role of the elective student. What do we have to do : presenting patients on round ? Typing information about patient on the computer health system ? Do we perform proceedure as lumbar puncture, stitching ? Do we scrub in, and once in the OR what is our role (give surgical tools ?) ? And lastly, do we write post op repport or is it the resident's job?

Please if you have lived this experience add as many details about what was it like : your role but also what you did wrong or you ould do differently and what you did right.

If you did another elective in another surgical area or if you know someone that has, please take part on this post.

Thank you very much to all

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[deleted480308]

If you have a “normal” rotation. Likely scrub in, almost definitely not handing the tools (thats a scrub nurse) or first assisting as many surgeons have a np/pa who works with them on all cases. They’ll occassionally oblige you by letting you do something (cut suture, suture yourself, use the drill or (forget the name of the plier tool) on a less risky portion of the surgery

But you’re mainly scrubbed in as a courtesy to let you see better, you aren’t at all necessary or helpful . Just enjoy the experience

 

[Anti-PD1]

Agree with above.

Also, it's highly variable by institution. I evacuated a SDH from start to finish (of course with the resident ready to jump in). A lot of times I observed spine cases, less exciting. Just depends. Practice suturing if you can. Become proficient at one hand ties. I cannot stress this enough. Attending leaves for lunch, resident starts suturing back or crani, helps if you can finish the job as he progresses. One hand ties. Have a good sense of humor, and know rock bands from the 80s.

Some other stuff. Consider the CNS Neurosurgery Survival Guide app. It's ~$7 but it's really helpful to have basic neurosurgery knowledge in one place whenever there's down time.

Stuff to commit to memory and learn: neuro exam obvi, cranial nerves, Circle of Willis anatomy and sinus anatomy, basic sulci and gyri anatomy, Hunt and Hess scale, Modified Fisher scale, Meyerding classification, common clinical presentations of spine: L4-5 vs L5-S1 disc etc.

 

[john2f]

Thank you very much, that’s exactly the kind of information I needed.