ArticleSurgical neurology international2014
Neurosurgery: A profession or a technical trade?
Article in Surgical neurology international, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- The dark side of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS): Intimidating Neurosurgeons From Testifying For Patients.Surgical neurology international · 2025Article
- Manual Instruments as an Alternative to Drilling for Bony Exposure in Skull Base Surgery: Concept and Technique.Journal of neurological surgery. Part B, Skull base · 2024Review
- Socioeconomic Impact of COVID-19 on Spinal Instrumentation Companies in the Era of Decreased Elective Surgery.Cureus · 2020Review
- COVID-19 Provides An Opportunity to Reassess How Frequent and How Extensive Elective Spine Surgery Should Be.Surgical neurology international · 2020Article
- In defense of the defendant.Surgical neurology international · 2019Article
- The AANS suspends Editor-in-Chief, Nancy Epstein, for telling the truth about spine surgery.Surgical neurology international · 2019Article
- Editorial on: "SuperionJournal of spine surgery (Hong Kong) · 2018Article
- The death of spine surgery, sequel - 2014.Surgical neurology international · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), 11 years ago converted its Internal Revenue Code (IRC) tax status from a 501 (c) (3) to a 501 (c) (6) entity. By doing so, the professional medical association, now a trade association, was able to more aggressively lobby, support political campaigns, and pursue business opportunities for its members. In the following decade, major changes were seen in the practice of neurosurgery, especially as it relates to spine surgery. With the majority of neurosurgeons limiting themselves to a spine practice, an increased number of spinal procedures, most noted in the Medicare population, was recorded. For example, a 15-fold increase in complex spinal fusions for spinal stenosis was seen between 2002 and 2007. While the basis for this increase was not readily apparent, it was associated with a reduction in reimbursement per case of about 50%, fueling the belief that the increase in complexity of surgery permitted recovery of fees in complex cases to off-set the loss of reimbursement for simpler cases. Considering the growth of spinal surgery within neurosurgery, and decrease funding for spine surgery, in the future there may be too many surgeons chasing too few dollars. There appears to be within neurosurgery a crisis developing where future manpower projections do not realistically match future anticipated specialty funding.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.