VIDEO: What Does a Neurosurgeon Do? Dr Azman Explains Brain & Spine Surgery

Video Description

What is a neurosurgeon, and what do they do?

Dr Azman Raffiq, a neurosurgeon in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, explains the role of neurosurgeons in treating brain and spine conditions. Unlike neurologists, neurosurgeons perform surgeries to address issues such as brain tumours, spine tumours, brain aneurysms, traumatic brain injuries, hydrocephalus, and degenerative spine diseases like slipped discs. Neurosurgeons in Malaysia are trained to treat both adults and children, providing life-saving and life-improving surgeries for various neurological conditions.

Watch this video to understand how neurosurgeons help patients with brain and spine disorders.

Video Transcript

Neurosurgeons are doctors who are trained specifically to deal with diseases that affect the human brain and spine. Not to be confused with neurologists, both of us deal with conditions affecting the brain and spine.
The only difference is that neurosurgeons actually perform surgeries to treat conditions that affect the brain and spine.
For example, if you have a brain tumour, then a neurosurgeon comes in, depending on where the tumour is, the size of the tumour, then we will probably end up doing brain surgery to remove the tumour.
Similarly goes for cases of spine tumours. So if you have a spine tumour, then a neurosurgeon comes in and removes the spinal cord tumour.
Apart from tumours, neurosurgeons in Malaysia are trained to also deal with diseases affecting the blood vessels of the brain. For example, certain conditions like brain aneurysms or abnormal vascular formations in the brain.
We also treat conditions such as brain infection, traumatic brain injury where you have a blood clot in the brain that requires us to remove it and conditions which cause brain swelling like hydrocephalus.
So neurosurgeons are a group of doctors who are specifically trained to deal with diseases on the brain, specifically to operate and to treat those conditions.
Neurosurgeons in Malaysia also treat spine conditions. Particularly conditions which are known as degenerative spine disease or things like disc prolapse, slip disc, affecting your cervical spine or your lumbar spine, these conditions are also treated by neurosurgeons.
Neurosurgeons in Malaysia are trained to treat both adult and paediatric, or children’s conditions. I also operate on children with brain tumors or brain conditions that require surgery.