Neurosurgery

Neurosurgery or/and neurological surgery, also known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty that focuses on the surgical treatment or rehabilitation of disorders that affect any portion of the nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nervous system, and cerebrovascular system. Neurosurgery as a medical specialty also includes non-surgical management of some neurological conditions.

bone in the human skull which, when joined together, forms the sides and roof of the cranium

bleeding into the subarachnoid space

the outermost layer of meninges

cerebrovascular disorder

Human disease

Radiosurgery is surgery using radiation, that is, the destruction of precisely selected areas of tissue using ionizing radiation rather than excision with a blade. Like other forms of radiation therapy (also called radiotherapy), it is usually used to treat cancer. Radiosurgery was originally defined by the Swedish neurosurgeon Lars Leksell as "a single high dose fraction of radiation, stereotactically directed to an intracranial region of interest".

Psychosurgery, also called neurosurgery for mental disorder (NMD), is the neurosurgical treatment of mental disorders. Psychosurgery has always been a controversial medical field. The modern history of psychosurgery begins in the 1880s under the Swiss psychiatrist Gottlieb Burckhardt. The first significant foray into psychosurgery in the 20th century was conducted by the Portuguese neurologist Egas Moniz who, during the mid-1930s, developed the operation known as leucotomy. The practice was enthusiastically taken up in the United States by the neuropsychiatrist Walter Freeman and the neurosurg

inferior area of the skull, composed of the endocranium and lower parts of the skull roof

one of the openings from the posterior cranial fossa through which nerves pass

type of neurofibromatosis disease

Medical procedure

imaging techniques used to colocalize sites of brain functions or physiological activity with brain structures

medical condition

nonsurgical therapeutic modality for treating locally invasive malignant tumors

A vagotomy is a surgical procedure that involves removing part of the vagus nerve. It is performed in the abdomen.

Vasospasm refers to a condition in which an arterial spasm leads to vasoconstriction. This can lead to tissue ischemia (insufficient blood flow) and tissue death (necrosis).

marketing term

thumb|Illustration depicting a surgical discectomy

type of organ transplantation

angiography that produces images of blood vessels in and around the brain

A laminectomy is a surgical procedure that removes a portion of a vertebra called the lamina, which is the roof of the spinal canal. It is a major spine operation with residual scar tissue and may result in postlaminectomy syndrome. Depending on the problem, more conservative treatments (e.g., small endoscopic procedures, without bone removal) may be viable.

Vein channel in the skull

medical device

excision of the thickened tunica intima of a carotid artery

implanted medical device for chronic pain management

surgical procedure performed to treat an aneurysm

medical treatment for aneurysm

rare disease

Neurolysis is the application of physical or chemical agents to a nerve in order to cause a temporary degeneration of targeted nerve fibers. When the nerve fibers degenerate, an interruption in the transmission of nerve signals occurs. In the medical field, neurolysis is commonly used to alleviate pain, such as in people with various forms of cancer, chronic osteoarthritis or spasticity.

A neurectomy, or nerve resection is a neurosurgical procedure in which a peripheral nerve is cut or removed to alleviate neuropathic pain or permanently disable some function of a nerve. The nerve is not intended to grow back. For chronic pain it may be an alternative to a failed nerve decompression when the target nerve has no motor function and numbness is acceptable. Neurectomies have also been used to permanently block autonomic function (e.g. excessive sweating in hands or involuntary muscle movement causing cramps), and special sensory function not related to pain (e.g. vestibular nerve

Cordotomy (or chordotomy) is a surgical procedure that disables selected pain-conducting tracts in the spinal cord, in order to achieve loss of pain and temperature perception. This procedure is commonly performed on patients experiencing severe pain due to cancer or other incurable diseases. Anterolateral cordotomy is effective for relieving unilateral, somatic pain while bilateral cordotomies may be required for visceral or bilateral pain.

type of surgical grafting

Decerebration is the elimination of cerebral brain function in an animal by removing the cerebrum, cutting across the brain stem, or severing certain arteries in the brain stem.

hearing aid and medical implant

neurosurgical procedure performed on the spinal cord

subspecialty of neurosurgery

common location for insertion of an extraventricular drain