A meningomyelocele may require closure within a few hours after birth. A newborn with an enlarging head may need diagnostic studies, subdural aspirations, or shunting procedures for hydrocephalus within the first weeks of life. Children may present with brain and spinal cord tumors and vascular malformations of the nervous system. Adults suffer from disc disease, usually in the lumbar and cervical regions, primary and metastatic brain tumors, aneurysms of cerebral blood vessels, and occlusive disease of the extracranial blood vessels supplying the brain. Trauma to the central and peripheral nervous systems is unfortunately widespread and not linked to specific age groups.
Infants suffer birth injuries, fall, and are occasionally subjected to abuse at home.
Teenagers are involved in vehicular accidents. Working people experience traumatic incidents at their jobs, and the elderly are prone to falls or violence with resultant skull and spinal fractures as well as blood clots compressing adjacent nervous structures. Neurological Surgery is a relatively new discipline, dating back to the early part of this century. From its beginnings the specialty has been wedded firmly to the laboratory. During their careers they shuttled between their experimental laboratories, clinical wards, and operating theaters seeing problems, asking questions, and designing appropriate investigative tactics for their resolution.