Quck Question

[FutureeMD]

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I was at a public lecture yesterday and the speaker (A neuroscientist) made a comment that startled me a little. The comment was that the average spine surgeon in the US does between 40-50 cases annually. I was under the impression that they are typically busier than that. However, 40-50 cases doesn't exactly indicate a busy schedule to me. Secondly, can one gain enough experience by doing that many cases annually given that the typical fellowship time period is about 2 years post residency?

I understand that some of these doctors also do craniotomies, so that maybe the source of a busy schedule. I guess my question is simply concerning neuro-based spine surgeons who only do spine (If there are any).

Please pardon me if my question is incoherent, I AM TIRED!!!!

 

[Chronic Student]

Let's see we do, on average, 4-6 spine cases a week fifty weeks a year. That is 200 to 300 a year and my boss is comparatively slow and we also do cranis, shunts, CTRs, UNTs and nerve biopsies.

I would say that we are average or slightly below average. One of the other spine guys in town does 10+ cases a week and another does about the same as us.

40-50 cases a year is one a week or less. I'm not buying it. At least not in private practice. Divide that up further into ACDFs, Lumbar fusions, laminectomies, simple disks, etc and it is hard to see where you could be very profecient doing that few cases.

Just my opinion, yours may differ.

 

[FutureeMD]

Let's see we do, on average, 4-6 spine cases a week fifty weeks a year. That is 200 to 300 a year and my boss is comparatively slow and we also do cranis, shunts, CTRs, UNTs and nerve biopsies.

I would say that we are average or slightly below average. One of the other spine guys in town does 10+ cases a week and another does about the same as us.

40-50 cases a year is one a week or less. I'm not buying it. At least not in private practice. Divide that up further into ACDFs, Lumbar fusions, laminectomies, simple disks, etc and it is hard to see where you could be very profecient doing that few cases.

Just my opinion, yours may differ.

Your numbers are significantly different from what I heard at the lecture. Now I'm second guessing my hearing ability. On the other hand, since the lecture was about severe spinal cord injury, I guess it's possible that he was talking about cases of such conditions. I was just concerned how one can be proficient with so small a number a cases annually.

 

[Chronic Student]

In that case, less than 10 in the last year for spinal cord injuries. We are kinda out in BFE though.