Photo: Adam Ciesielski

Today marks the last day of Neurosurgery Awareness Week, and the end of a week long annual meeting for neurosurgeons in Chicago, Illinois. The meeting was hosted by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), a professional organization dedicated to "advancing the specialty of neurological surgery in order to promote the highest quality of patient care". I was able to attend the conference for one afternoon, and in the next few days and weeks, I will be blogging about some of the latest developments in spinal medicine I found while I was there.

Neurosurgeons are one type of back pain doctor, although the scope of the profession extends to all aspects of the human nervous system. For example, a neurosurgeon may specialize their practice on brain tumors, epilepsy, spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s disease, or, of course, back or neck problems. According to the AANS, neurosurgeons spend about half of their time helping patients with spine problems.

Typically, you would see a neurosurgeon for your back or neck after all conservative options were tried.