Dr Timothy Steel's Neurosurgery Videos

Microvascular Decompression 3:27

This patient with Trigeminal Neuralgia had surgery in 2012 by another surgeon at another institution. Initially, she felt well, but the pain gradually returned over several years. This is a short video is of her repeat surgery, cut down from 1 hour to 3 mins.

Nerve Root Decompression 3:20

The patient in this video had severe sciatica due to nerve root compression. Surgery was performed to decompress the nerve.

Cervical Discectomy 3:08

This patient had severe pain in their right arm from a cervical disc protrusion. An MRI showed a right-sided C5-6 disc protrusion causing nerve root compression. The patient underwent a right C5-6 micro discectomy and woke up from surgery with no arm pain.

The Impact of Mobile Phones on Children’s Brain Health  

It’s a scary prospect – and it’s normal for any parent to wonder whether rise of the digital age has impacted the cognitive ability of our children.

As a neurosurgeon, my observation on this matter has been that there has been no evidence that mobile phones impact the health of children’s brains negatively. Further, very few studies have shown any statistical evidence of an association between mobile devices and health risks.

Concerns have also been raised regarding the radiation emitted by mobile phones leading to the development of tumours. However, there is no evidence that this radiation can lead to tumour growth in any living organism.

My perspective is that children’s use of mobile devices has positively improved their education and general worldliness, so long as it’s as part of a balanced lifestyle. 

Is Exercise more Appropriate than Mdication when Managing Back Pain? 

Exercise has a big role to play in the management of back pain. But we’ve got to be very cautious about making a blanket statement about back pain because back pain on its own is not a diagnosis, it’s a symptom. 
 
Back pain can be divided into acute or chronic, and categorised as severe, moderate or mild. So, recommending exercise as a treatment technique across the broad space of back pain is not appropriate. 
 
This video contains a brief overview of how exercise or medication can be used to safely manage back pain. 

Are Preventative Routine MRI Scans a Future Possibility?  

RI scans today are very accessible. Looking back 20 years ago when I was a junior neurosurgeon, there were just two MRI scanners in Sydney. So, an MRI scan was exceptionally restricted.
 
Now, there are at least 100 scanners around the city.
 
Continuing on this trajectory, we can expect another 20 years in the future to see routine MRIs become a reality, certainly for spinal conditions and likely without a specialist referral. With prevalence, comes lowered costs to the patient, too.