Interventional Neurology

[BeTheBallDanny]

What is the career outlook for Interventional Neurology? Is it impossible to obtain a fellowship as a stroke neurologist? Is the field growing/shrinking? What type of cases do you normally see when you aren't doing procedures? What is the volume of procedures and are there opportunities to do research in the field? What is the average salary like versus general neurology? Obviously the lifestyle is not as good as general neurology or other subspecialties but I find it much more interesting. Not sure if neurosurgery is for me but from the time I have spent in IR I think I would love NIR.

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[CaliforniaDreamer]

I have heard that many places prefer interventionally trained neurosurgeons now.

 

[WedgeDawg]

Isn't interventional neuroradiology a neurosurgery subspecialty?

 

[CaliforniaDreamer]

Isn't interventional neuroradiology a neurosurgery subspecialty?

I believe it is, as well as for IR.

 

[Taddy Mason]

Isn't interventional neuroradiology a neurosurgery subspecialty?

Most of the ones I've worked with went neuro --> vascular neuro fellowship --> interventional neuro, but there's also the fellowship after NS or IR residency route as well.

OP - the answer to a lot of your questions are dependent on the culture where you practice. There can be turf wars between IR, NS, and interventional trained neurologists which can highly influence what your practice will be like (e.g., who does the bulk of procedures, reimbursement, pts. you see, etc.).

 

[BurghStudent]

Radioloy, Neurosurgery and Neurology can lead to interventional.

 

[BeTheBallDanny]

Most of the ones I've worked with went neuro --> vascular neuro fellowship --> interventional neuro, but there's also the fellowship after NS or IR residency route as well.

OP - the answer to a lot of your questions are dependent on the culture where you practice. There can be turf wars between IR, NS, and interventional trained neurologists which can highly influence what your practice will be like (e.g., who does the bulk of procedures, reimbursement, pts. you see, etc.).

So what you are saying is that there is a huge amount of variability from program to program? Is it just as variable
in obtaining fellowships?

 

[Taddy Mason]

So what you are saying is that there is a huge amount of variability from program to program? Is it just as variable
in obtaining fellowships?

I was referring to variability in practice once you're an attending - which is what a lot of your questions pertain to. In regards to variability of obtaining a fellowship do you mean difficulty?

 

[BeTheBallDanny]

I was referring to variability in practice once you're an attending - which is what a lot of your questions pertain to. In regards to variability of obtaining a fellowship do you mean difficulty?

I mean do some programs only want neurosurgeons and others like neurologists or radiologists? And I guess at the core, yes I mean how difficult is it to obtain a fellowship coming from a neurology background?

 

[deleted564680]

Radiology - 5 years residency + 2-3 years fellowship for neurointerventional
Neurosurgery - 7 years residency + 1-2 years fellowship for endovascular neurosurgery

Neurosurgeons are preferred because they can handle the neuroICU workload, but more programs are teaching radiologists that aspect. However, NIR is a "surgeon's lifestyle" so most radiologists don't have any interest in it. I would assume that neurologists would fall somewhere in between.

 

[Taddy Mason]

In addition to what @Cubsfan10 posted -
Neurology 4 years + 1-2 year vascular neuro fellowship + 1-2 year endovascular fellowship.

Regardless of what path, you're looking at ~8 years of training post med school - I'd be much more concerned about getting into med school and figuring out what specialties interest and disinterest you (especially in terms of bread and butter), rather than what subspecialty at this point. Also, NS and IR are very competitive residences, where as neuro residencies and vascular neuro fellowships you can nearly walk into, so long as you have a pulse and passing step scores. I can't comment on how competitive it is to go into an endovascular fellowship after a vascular neuro one.

 

[neoevolution]

I've seen a lot of SDN posts on how interventional neurology is hardest for neurology to get into vs. nsurg or rads, and also how interventional pain prefers PM&R or anesthesia over neurology too. I'm not sure if match statistics are available for the fellowships though. It is worrying though that you could go the neuro route and then have a high chance of being unable to match anything interventional afterwards

 

[BeTheBallDanny]

I've seen a lot of SDN posts on how interventional neurology is hardest for neurology to get into vs. nsurg or rads, and also how interventional pain prefers PM&R or anesthesia over neurology too. I'm not sure if match statistics are available for the fellowships though. It is worrying though that you could go the neuro route and then have a high chance of being unable to match anything interventional afterwards

I read those posts as well, but it seemed as if many of them were from ten years ago, not sure how relevant that information is now since it is such an evolving field. I guess I will just try to get in touch with some PD's and see what they say since it seems no one really knows but them.