Neurology is divided into neurology and neurosurgery.

First, let's look at what internal medicine and surgery do. Simply put, internal medicine mainly relies on drugs to treat patients, while surgery mostly uses surgery as a method to treat diseases. But this is only the most superficial understanding. In fact, surgery mainly treats the following five diseases: trauma, infection, tumor, deformity and dysfunction. These diseases often need to be treated by surgery or manipulation. Therefore, surgery has become a unique treatment of surgery. People often regard the need for surgical treatment as the standard to distinguish medical diseases from surgical diseases. But surgery is not equal to surgery, and surgery is only one of the treatments for surgical diseases. The scope of the operation can reach all parts of the body, and it is deep and difficult to carry out, so the operation has to be divided more finely. In addition to general surgery, there are thoracic surgery, cardiovascular surgery, urology, neurosurgery, plastic surgery and so on.

Anyway, what does neurosurgery do? From the explanation in the last paragraph, it is easy to see that neurosurgery is to treat the trauma, infection, tumor, deformity and dysfunction of the nervous system. Neurosurgery is commonly known as "brain surgery". It can be seen that neurosurgery mainly treats brain trauma, infection, tumor, deformity and dysfunction. In fact, this is an incomplete view. The nervous system is divided into central nervous system and peripheral nervous system. The central nervous system refers to the brain and spinal cord. In other words, neurosurgery not only operates on the brain, but also treats diseases of the spinal cord, spine and peripheral nerves.

Specifically, the most common diseases in neurosurgery include the following.

The first is head trauma and spinal cord trauma. This may be the oldest disease in neurosurgery, and it may also be the eternal treatment object of neurosurgery.

Second, the brain and spinal cord tumor. Brain and spinal cord, like other organs in the whole body, can produce benign or malignant tumors, but malignant tumors of the nervous system are not called "cancer" like other common malignant tumors. Glioma is the most common intracranial tumor. This is a kind of malignant tumor, with high or low degree of malignancy, some may have no symptoms for several years, and some may only survive for a few months after examination. Other common intracranial tumors include pituitary adenoma, meningioma and neurilemmoma. Intracranial tumor; The clinical manifestations are varied, which has a great relationship with the location of the tumor. Generally speaking, magnetic resonance imaging is the most commonly used examination method for intracranial tumors. The common schwannomas in spinal cord tumor are schwannomas, meningiomas and ependymomas. Similarly, magnetic vibration inspection is also a necessary inspection method in spinal cord tumor.

Third, cerebrovascular diseases. With the improvement of people's living standards, the incidence of diabetes, hypertension and abnormal lipid metabolism has soared. Subsequently, the incidence of cerebrovascular diseases also showed an upward trend. Hypertensive cerebral hemorrhage is the most serious complication of hypertension with high mortality and disability rate. Surgical treatment under appropriate circumstances can save lives. In addition, intracranial aneurysms and cerebrovascular malformations are not uncommon, and they are the most common diseases in cerebrovascular surgery. This disease often needs cerebral angiography to be diagnosed.

Congenital malformation, such as atlanto-occipital malformation, meningocele, meningocele, meningocele, etc.

Degenerative diseases of cervical and lumbar vertebrae, such as disc herniation and cervical spondylosis. This kind of diseases are mostly treated by neurosurgery abroad, but in China, orthopedic surgeons are often doing this work. In recent years, neurosurgeons in China have gradually carried out surgical treatment of such diseases.

Functional neurosurgery, mainly treating epilepsy and Parkinson's disease. These nervous system diseases can be alleviated by drug treatment or surgical treatment. In other words, there are some diseases that overlap between neurology and neurosurgery. Parkinson's disease and epilepsy can be relieved by oral drugs, but when the symptoms are serious, they can also be relieved by surgery.

In addition, there are stereotactic neurosurgery and surgical treatment of peripheral nerve diseases.