Since day 1 of medical school I always fet strongly about neurosurgery. I love the challenge of the field. But so many people I meet (even residents and attendings themselves) tell me I am crazy for wanting to do it. Recently I considered ENT as a specialty choice.
Has anyone on this board ever been in between these two specialties.
I need to make a choice soon as to whether to pursue ENT or neurosurgery. I have my own ideas about each specialty but I wanted to know about the experiences of my friends on the forum here- what made you decide for either specialty.
Thanks 🙂
Its funny, but when I was a medical student I was interested in neurosurgery and ENT, and was having a tough time deciding between the two. With neurosurgery, I absolutely loved the idea of dealing with the very thing that makes a human being a human being, and it is why I will always have a tremendous respect for neurosurgeons. I also loved the prospect of dealing with patently life-threatening conditions. I realize that not everything neurosurgeons address are emergencies, and that ENTs too deal with life-threatening situations, but Im talking about tendencies here.
In the end, however, I went with ENT for five reasons. First, the residency is shorter. Five years vs. six or seven. Second, I believe theres more variety in the types of surgeries and treatment objectives that an ENT can do (we can treat pathology, physical defects, and cosmetic cases, whereas neurosurgery is all pathology and physical defects) . Third, theres medicine in ENT. There isnt much medicine in neurosurgery (they have neurologists for that). Fourth, the lifestyle of an ENT is better--specifically because our patients tend to be healthier (unless dealing with head/neck oncology) and demand less hospital time and close monitoring. And fifth, I think that ENT requires more surgical skill than does neurosurgery. No question in my mind that a neurosurgeon is a more knowledgeable physician than an ENT and that neurosurgery requires great skill in the planning phase as well as a steady hand in the operating room, but I think that an ENT as a surgeon must know how to deal with bone, soft tissues, sensory organs (such as the eyes and the cochlea), vasculature, and manage cosmetics all the while. In my convoluted mind, the procedures performed by neurosurgeons were more similar to the ones orthopedic surgeons performed, except neurosurgeons deal in a field that demands much more knowledge of anatomy, physiology, and pathology. Now granted, there are neurosurgeons who do nerve decompressions in arms, etc, but as I understand it, this isnt very commonly done in neurosurgery.
Anyway, both are absolutely amazing specialties and Id have been very happy in either. Im sure you will be as well. So dont sweat it.
