neuro-ophtho rotation

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joseppi

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I am curious weather or not anyone has done a neuro-optho rotation, either as a med student or resident?
If so, what did you get out it? What kinds of things were you exposed to? Was it worth it? Would you do one month or split it into 2 weeks....

thanks
 
joseppi said:
I am curious weather or not anyone has done a neuro-optho rotation, either as a med student or resident?
If so, what did you get out it? What kinds of things were you exposed to? Was it worth it? Would you do one month or split it into 2 weeks....

thanks
Click to expand...

In Neuroophthalmology you will see patients with strokes/tumors with visual field anomalies, nystagmus of a variety of causes, various optic neuropathies whether inherited, neoplastic, inflammatory, vascular in orgin, cranial nerve palsies affecting II-VII, disorders of gaze and binocular vision, ptosis, blepharospasm, hemifacial spasm, horners, myopathies such as myasthenia and CPEO/kearn-sayer, demyelinating d/o such as GBS and miller-fisher, multiple scerlosis, graves disease, pseudotumor cerebri, functional visual loss, some neuropsych stuff like alexia w/o agraphia, simultagnosia, etc...

Some neuro-ophthalmologists are neurology trained and therefore do not perform surgery. So, no surgery. Others are Ophthalmology trained, in which case they often do cataract/ant. segment surgery, eye muscle surgery, temporal artery biopsies, optic nerve sheath fenestration...and of course botox injections.
 
PDT4CNV pretty much nailed it. I have nothing useful to add, other than to say that I despise neuro-ophthalmology. If you are into neurology and the thinking side of opthhalmology, great. However, in my experience most people who entered ophthalmology do not tend to enjoy neuro-ophth. It does not offer the same "mix of surgery and medicine" as other specialties, skewing much more heavily towards clinic and much less towards surgery. Note that most of the surgeries PDT mentioned are not really exclusive to neuro, except maybe temporal artery biopsies (because no one else wants to do them) and optic nerve sheath fenestrations (ack.). It just seems to me that neuro-ophth is either skewed too much towards neurology or it is something you might do in addition to your mainly general practice.

Anyway, just one person's opinion. Please don't anyone rip on me too much - I definitely appreciate having neuro-ophthalmologists around, I just have absolutely no desire to be one. I would welcome a pro-neuro-ophth viewpoint, maybe I've just been missing something.

Finally, as for your questions. . .I doubt it matters exactly how you set up your rotation.
 
That being said, from a medical student's point of view, neuro-ophthalmology is often an excellent learning experience. In the right centers, you get exposed to a wide array of diseases and get very good teaching. It is sometimes a bit more medical student friendly because you get the chance to really think about anatomy, it builds on the foundations you've built from other disciplines, and neuro-ophtho visits are often longer than general ones. But I would make sure to do a general ophthalmology elective or another subspecialty in order to see if ophtho is really for you.

7ontheline said:
PDT4CNV pretty much nailed it. I have nothing useful to add, other than to say that I despise neuro-ophthalmology. If you are into neurology and the thinking side of opthhalmology, great. However, in my experience most people who entered ophthalmology do not tend to enjoy neuro-ophth. It does not offer the same "mix of surgery and medicine" as other specialties, skewing much more heavily towards clinic and much less towards surgery. Note that most of the surgeries PDT mentioned are not really exclusive to neuro, except maybe temporal artery biopsies (because no one else wants to do them) and optic nerve sheath fenestrations (ack.). It just seems to me that neuro-ophth is either skewed too much towards neurology or it is something you might do in addition to your mainly general practice.

Anyway, just one person's opinion. Please don't anyone rip on me too much - I definitely appreciate having neuro-ophthalmologists around, I just have absolutely no desire to be one. I would welcome a pro-neuro-ophth viewpoint, maybe I've just been missing something.

Finally, as for your questions. . .I doubt it matters exactly how you set up your rotation.
Click to expand...
 
Thank you all for your input, I just wanted to be certain what I was getting into before I signed up for an elective rotation (as a PGY1). By the sounds of it, it is what I had in mind. Hopefully I will learn alot.
 
I did rip into neuro-ophth a bit but I think as a med student or prelim resident it will be good because it is a slower pace and good learning experience. You're not going to learn surgery in a 4 week rotation, but you will see a nice detailed ophtho exam and learn how to approach a clinical diagnostic problem.
 
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