Orthopaedic Surgery: Help me Guys...

[khash08]

Could you folks give me some pro and cons of doing spine surgery as a living?

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[veenut]

As a general rule, if you walk into this forum and start out by saying you don't like orthopedic surgery, you're not going to find a lot of people jumping to give you advice

 

[MossPoh]

So, if you like to do a ton more spine and hate the rest of orthopaedics why not look into neurosurgery?

You might step on less toes that way too.

 

[khash08]

As a general rule, if you walk into this forum and start out by saying you don't like orthopedic surgery, you're not going to find a lot of people jumping to give you advice

Ok, what I meant is that except spine, other ortho fields don't appeal to me as much. But as a general rule for me, ortho is a very nice surgical field. I just feel that spine is somewhat different from the rest of the field, as the type of surgery you are doing, and your clientele are diffrent from the rest of the field. And I am interested to know what you guys think about spine surgery.

So, if you like to do a ton more spine and hate the rest of orthopaedics why not look into neurosurgery?

You might step on less toes that way too.

Are you kidding me? I said one of the reasons I wanted to do spine is because of nice working hours. Neurosurgeons have the WORST work hours among physicians. PERIOD. Beside I am not too much into neuro.

 

[ddmo]

I just feel that spine is somewhat different from the rest of the field, as the type of surgery you are doing, and your clientele are diffrent from the rest of the field.

You're right. Most orthopaedic patients (like the old people with joint replacements you mentioned) have great outcomes and are relieved of much of their pain and are appreciative, and this is often times not the case with spine surgery.

The reason you are so well compensated is because that is the only way a surgeon could stand to listen to people complain all day about back pain. From my experience the surgeries have some of the worst outcomes in terms of pain reduction and most people will be with you for life as you do one level after the next.

While some of the surgeries have a level of technical difficulty, I wouldn't say it's any more technical than the other fields of orthopaedics. There is not as much finesse as you would think taking a huge double action rongeur and chewing out someones lamina.

Regarding lifestyle, spine is not the field I would choose if looking for easy street.

Overall, I think you have very little idea of what spine surgery is all about and cannot really make an informed decision at this point. I can't tell you how many people I know went into residency wanting to do spine and then were actually exposed to it and hated every second of it. So I would not go into ortho if your only desire is spine surgery. You will have much more exposure to spine surgery if you did neurosurgery.

 

[VincentAdultman]

Hello folks, I need your advice

First of all, let me tell you that most of the ortho fields (like joint replacement, hand, etc.) don't appeal to me very much. But, spine surgery is something that I find quite interesting because:

1) Your client ranges from kids to adults (and not only old people like in joint replacement)
2) The surgeries are very complicated (I like that) and challenging.
3) you make a crazy salary, and have nice working hours (from what I heard)


Could you folks give me some pro and cons of doing spine surgery as a living?

Thanks to anyone wishing to help

keep looking.

 

[khash08]

You're right. Most orthopaedic patients (like the old people with joint replacements you mentioned) have great outcomes and are relieved of much of their pain and are appreciative, and this is often times not the case with spine surgery.

The reason you are so well compensated is because that is the only way a surgeon could stand to listen to people complain all day about back pain. From my experience the surgeries have some of the worst outcomes in terms of pain reduction and most people will be with you for life as you do one level after the next.

While some of the surgeries have a level of technical difficulty, I wouldn't say it's any more technical than the other fields of orthopaedics. There is not as much finesse as you would think taking a huge double action rongeur and chewing out someones lamina.

Regarding lifestyle, spine is not the field I would choose if looking for easy street.

Overall, I think you have very little idea of what spine surgery is all about and cannot really make an informed decision at this point. I can't tell you how many people I know went into residency wanting to do spine and then were actually exposed to it and hated every second of it. So I would not go into ortho if your only desire is spine surgery. You will have much more exposure to spine surgery if you did neurosurgery.

Thanks for your feedback comrade. Are you telling me that spine surgery is actually an unsatisfying field?

Could you also please elaborate on lifestyle of spine surgeons please?
And by the way...neurosurgery is definitively not the thing for me...thx for the suggstion anyway.

 

[VincentAdultman]

Thanks for your feedback comrade. Are you telling me that spine surgery is actually an unsatisfying field?

Could you also please elaborate on lifestyle of spine surgeons please?
And by the way...neurosurgery is definitively not the thing for me...thx for the suggstion anyway.

For those that enjoy the anatomy, the procedures, and the subset op patients that DO get well, then spine is very satisfying.

But the operations themselvs can be very long, very tedious. The patients tend to have unrealistic expectations. They think that surgery is the magic bullet that's going to take away all their pain when that's not really the case. At my institution, the residents can be operating pretty late depending on what is scheduled. Combine that with the fact that a lot of these patients can get quite sick post op. So no, ortho spine is probably not the way to go for lifestyle.

And how do you know neurosurg isn't for you, because the hours? Well, if you're not really into ortho besides the 6 months you are on spine out of a 5 year residency, then those days can seem pretty long too.

Finally, not to sound like a dick, but the vague reasons why you stated you were interested in spine coupled with the mention of salary kind of makes me think most of your "interest" came from sites like this:

http://www.allied-physicians.com/salary_surveys/physician-salaries.htm

And I may be wrong about that. But if I am not, I would dispense with the notion of doing spine at once.

 

[ddmo]

For those that enjoy the anatomy, the procedures, and the subset op patients that DO get well, then spine is very satisfying.

But the operations themselvs can be very long, very tedious. The patients tend to have unrealistic expectations. They think that surgery is the magic bullet that's going to take away all their pain when that's not really the case. At my institution, the residents can be operating pretty late depending on what is scheduled. Combine that with the fact that a lot of these patients can get quite sick post op. So no, ortho spine is probably not the way to go for lifestyle.

And how do you know neurosurg isn't for you, because the hours? Well, if you're not really into ortho besides the 6 months you are on spine out of a 5 year residency, then those days can seem pretty long too.

Finally, not to sound like a dick, but the vague reasons why you stated you were interested in spine coupled with the mention of salary kind of makes me think most of your "interest" came from sites like this:

http://www.allied-physicians.com/salary_surveys/physician-salaries.htm

And I may be wrong about that. But if I am not, I would dispense with the notion of doing spine at once.