Traumatic Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI)

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DocM

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What depth of involvement do Orthopedic Surgeons (Spine and Trauma) have in treating those with traumatic SCI? Does the involvement stop once the fracture is stabilized? Does ortho have a hand in the critical care and if possible the rehab? The reason I ask is that I am interested in spinal cord injuries and have been for a while now...I am wondering which path is better: a surgical one (neurosurg or ortho spine) or perhabs I should look at PM&R or Neurology. Feel free to share advice and experiences.

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DocM said:
What depth of involvement do Orthopedic Surgeons (Spine and Trauma) have in treating those with traumatic SCI? Does the involvement stop once the fracture is stabilized? Does ortho have a hand in the critical care and if possible the rehab? The reason I ask is that I am interested in spinal cord injuries and have been for a while now...I am wondering which path is better: a surgical one (neurosurg or ortho spine) or perhabs I should look at PM&R or Neurology. Feel free to share advice and experiences.


Good question. I too have an interest in Spinal Cord Injury Medicine. All the fields you listed will see these patients and I've met neurosurgeons, orthopods, radiologists, neurologists, and rehab docs who have a primary interest in SCI. I guess one has to ask what aspects of SCI they find interesting. Neurologists are the driving force behind much of the new research on stem cell therapies, understanding the role of modulating the immune system for therapeutic benefits, regeneration research, excitotoxicity, and neural plasticity. In terms of clinical care, PMNR docs coordinate the care of these patients and are looking into new rehabilitation methods to retrain the nervous system following injury and also do research on the newer prostheses being tested. Orthopods and neurosurgeons see these patients mostly in the acute setting but also do some research. Radiologists are identifying new methods to look at the spinal cord following injury and identifying new exciting methods to study axonal regeneration and plasticity non-invasively. My primary interest is to develop transplantation strategies for SCI. Therefore, neurology and neurosurgery were at the top of my list. I have decided on neurology. Hope this helps.
 
syrinx said:
Good question. I too have an interest in Spinal Cord Injury Medicine. All the fields you listed will see these patients and I've met neurosurgeons, orthopods, radiologists, neurologists, and rehab docs who have a primary interest in SCI. I guess one has to ask what aspects of SCI they find interesting. Neurologists are the driving force behind much of the new research on stem cell therapies, understanding the role of modulating the immune system for therapeutic benefits, regeneration research, excitotoxicity, and neural plasticity. In terms of clinical care, PMNR docs coordinate the care of these patients and are looking into new rehabilitation methods to retrain the nervous system following injury and also do research on the newer prostheses being tested. Orthopods and neurosurgeons see these patients mostly in the acute setting but also do some research. Radiologists are identifying new methods to look at the spinal cord following injury and identifying new exciting methods to study axonal regeneration and plasticity non-invasively. My primary interest is to develop transplantation strategies for SCI. Therefore, neurology and neurosurgery were at the top of my list. I have decided on neurology. Hope this helps.


Thanks for your response. It's very insightful and ecouraging.
 
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syrinx said:
Good question. I too have an interest in Spinal Cord Injury Medicine. All the fields you listed will see these patients and I've met neurosurgeons, orthopods, radiologists, neurologists, and rehab docs who have a primary interest in SCI. I guess one has to ask what aspects of SCI they find interesting. Neurologists are the driving force behind much of the new research on stem cell therapies, understanding the role of modulating the immune system for therapeutic benefits, regeneration research, excitotoxicity, and neural plasticity. In terms of clinical care, PMNR docs coordinate the care of these patients and are looking into new rehabilitation methods to retrain the nervous system following injury and also do research on the newer prostheses being tested. Orthopods and neurosurgeons see these patients mostly in the acute setting but also do some research. Radiologists are identifying new methods to look at the spinal cord following injury and identifying new exciting methods to study axonal regeneration and plasticity non-invasively. My primary interest is to develop transplantation strategies for SCI. Therefore, neurology and neurosurgery were at the top of my list. I have decided on neurology. Hope this helps.


One more question if you don't mind. How did you choose Neurology over Neurosurgery? I may have to make the same decision.
 
DocM said:
One more question if you don't mind. How did you choose Neurology over Neurosurgery? I may have to make the same decision.


Was a very though decision. I loved my neurosurg experiences but too many attendings I met were very unhappy with the work environment. They all complained about the same things: declining reimbursements, increasing workload, malpractice, ungrateful patients etc... I heard these complaints over and over and after a while it really wears on you. On the other hand, I only heard encouraging things from neurologists.
 
A beautiful response to a question. What a pleasant thread.

I would add: do you like to operate or not? And there is a lot more to orthopaedics than SCI. I would not go into it if that is your only interest.
 
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