Ophthalmology vs Neurosurgery

[triquetras]

Any ophthalmology residents or 4th years applying to ophthalomolgy programs that also considered neurosurgery? I am very interested in neuroscience, especially visual neuroscience and I also want to be a surgeon...following that train of thought I am thinking ophthalmology or neurosurgery. any comments?

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[GeddyLee]

I would guess that most visual neuroscience in ophthalmology is more in the realm of what neuro-ophthalmologists do. However, neuro-ops don't do much in the way of surgery. Both neurosurgery and oph would be great careers, but there isn't much similarity between the two.

 

[Retinamark]

I thought seriously about neurosurgery, but some of the big differences are
1. Ophth pts are rarely seriously ill (there are obvious exceptions & more than the non-ophthalmologist would realise)
2. Ophthalmologists have more happy pts (wow thank you doctor, the operation was a huge success)
3. The working conditions for neurosurgeons are terrible - horrendous hours, lots of on call
4. Neurosurgeons live in a medicolegal minefield, where the landmines are almost confluent. They are much more sparsely scattered in opthal

 

[mdkurt]

I never considered neurosurgery, but one of my former attendings did. He gave me these two reasons for not doing neurosurg:
1. chronic back pain
2. worker's comp
He said these are common issues in neurosurgery clinic, and painful to deal with on a daily basis. He felt that when the legal issues mentioned above were taken into consideration, the choice was clear.

 

[Leukocyte]

IMHO, comparing neurosx and ophthalmology is like comparing apples and bananas.

Neurosurgery

Brain/spinal cord
Usually very sick pts
Mostly pts with poor prognosis, even with sx.
Frustrating because many cases are deemed un-operable, and there is nothing you can do.
Many lawsuits.
Many on-call nights.
High stress, a worse lifestyle.

Ophthalmology

eyeball/orbit
Usually stable pts
Mostly pts with good prognosis.
Gratifying because in most cases you can do a surgical/medical intervention to "fix" the problem.
Fewer lawsuits.
Fewer on-call nights.
Low stress, a better lifestyle.