Table Of ContentNEUROSURGERY PRACTICE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
NEUROSURGERY PRACTICE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Mark Shaya, M.D.
Staff Neurosurgeon
Department of Neurosurgery
Cedars Medical Center
Miami, Florida
Remi Nader, M.D.
Staff Neurosurgeon
Department of Neurosurgery
Greenwood Laflore Hospital
Greenwood, Mississippi
Anil Nanda, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Professor and Chairman
Department of Neurosurgery
Louisiana State University
Shreveport, Louisiana
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data TK
Shaya, Mark.
Neurosurgery Practice Questions and Answers / Mark Shaya, Remi Nader,
Anil Nanda. –- 1st ed.
p. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-58890-422-9 (softcover : alk. paper) -- ISBN 3-13-142511-3
(softcover : alk. paper)
1. Nervous system–-Diseases–-Examinations, questions, etc.
2. Neurology–-Examinations, questions, etc. I. Nader, Remi.
II. Nanda, Anil. III. Title.
[DNLM: 1. Nervous System Diseases–-Examination Questions.
2. Neurology-–Examination Questions. WL 18.2 S538n 2005]
RC356.S33 2005
616.8’0076–-dc22
2005020979
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Dedication
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
—T. S . Eliot
from Four Quartets
For Michelle
v
Contents
Foreword viii
Preface ix
Questions 1
Answers 167
vii
Foreword
Medical knowledge is growing at an exponential rate and information learned
just 10 years ago can be obsolete today. Continuing medical education has
become a dominant tool to help practitioners keep pace with the develop-
ment of their respective fields.
To this end, Neurosurgery Practice Questions and Answers by Drs. Mark Shaya,
Remi Nader and Anil Nanda will be positively viewed by the neurosurgical com-
munity. The authors are to be commended for having produced an intelligent
and diverse set of questions that are not meant to tease the readers but rather
to force the acquisition of factual knowledge and encourage the application of
logic.
The topics are extremely diverse and comprehensive, spanning all the
fundamental disciplines that have practical relevance to the practice of
neurosurgery, such as neuroanatomy, neuropathology, neuropharmacology,
neurophysiology, neurology, and neuroimaging. All in all, over 800 questions
are presented with answers, and whenever necessary or useful, they are
backed up by specific explanations.
It is indeed rare to find such a well thought out and practical teaching tool. I
commend the authors for their effort and perseverance in completing this book.
Raymond Sawaya, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Professor and Chairman
Department of Neurosurgery
Baylor College of Medicine
Distinguished Chair in Neurosurgery
The University of Texas
M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, Texas
viii
Preface
This book started off as my study aid to prepare for the neurosurgery board
examination. Frustrated that there were no practice questions for me to use
to test myself before the exam, I created questions during my readings. As
the time for the exam approached, I had well over two thousand questions
written in longhand on legal pads. Afterwards, on the advice of a good friend,
I weeded out the bland and mundane questions and compiled the rest into
the book you are reading today.
There are no chapters and no divisions by topic. The questions are arranged
randomly much like they are on the actual examination. One can take this
book as a practice exam, or move more slowly and exhaust each question by
cross-reference and repetition. As we all learn at different paces and through
different means, I will leave it to the discretion of the reader as to how to use
this book most effectively.
I would like to thank Thieme Medical Publishers for its support of this proj-
ect. I also wish to thank Drs. Arvind Dubey and Paisit Paueksakon, for reading
the book for accuracy and for helping me to obtain MRIs and histopathology
slides. I would also like to thank Dr. Anil Nanda for his support and suggestions
for improvement and for the intraoperative images that were taken from cases
of his on which I assisted.
Mark R. Shaya, M.D.
ix
