Jonathan White, M.D.
Department of Neurological Surgery
UT Southwestern Medical Center
5303 Harry Hines Blvd.
4th Floor, Suite 100
Dallas, TX 75390-9167
214-645-2300
http://tiny.cc/jonathanwhite/
Transcript: How to select a neurosurgeon and hospital
There’s many surgeons out there who offer the microvascular decompression and one question you should keep in mind when selecting a surgeon is “Is this the right surgeon for you?” And there are several important variables that go into that. One, you should have somebody that you generally feel comfortable with and trust and somebody who is able to answer your questions and make you feel comfortable. Two, you should chose somebody that is accessible to you where you’ll be able to return and have repeat visits or just be able to call the office and have your questions answered.
There’s one question that sometimes surgeons get a little bit sensitive about and that is “How many times have you done this procedure?” And the surgeons don’t always like to be asked that question but I think it’s a fair question for the patients to ask.
The microvascular decompression is a relatively rare procedure even for a busy surgeon. People don’t do three and four hundred of these a year. But studies have shown that surgeons who do more of them tend to have better outcomes and better results and that hospitals that have surgeons who do more procedures tend to have better results for the patients.
So it’s reasonable to expect that your hospital and your surgeon have done ten a year, twenty a year, thirty a year, some reasonable number of procedures to make you feel that they’re experienced in this procedure.