Science and Art of Neurosurgery

The boundary between art and science is often obscure and those trying to practice a branch of Medicine without combining these two aspects are condemned to a certain failure.
Nowhere is this truer than in the practice of neurosurgery.
Neurosurgery requires the art of communication and unhurried listening to the patient’s clinical history. It needs the ability to observe and elicit the neurological signs, to operate on the most delicate organ in human body with dexterity and extreme concentration; and most importantly, to face the philosophical issues surrounding life and death.
Thus, it is no doubt a daunting task to be a neurosurgeon but it allows one to integrate art, science and philosophy in the most practical and humanitarian way.
It is my personal experience that any neurosurgeon who views this branch as a combination of these three aspects, matures as a human being over a period of time.
He finds himself totally humbled by the sheer beauty of these organs called the brain and the spinal cord.
The modern Neurosurgery has evolved over the last 100 years or so and has seen many technological advances in the operating techniques. The present day neurosurgery is a space age surgery and has many technical armaments up its sleeve.
Thus though this branch of Surgery has become scientifically advanced, we are far away from understanding the exact functioning of many parts of the brain parts. Also, the basic issues surrounding human disease, sufferings and emotions around life and death have remained the same.
Leave a reply