Dr. Juan Torres-Reveron, M.D./ PH.D.

It depends. If the surgery will be done with a craniotomy, you are looking at about 2-3 months of recovery where you feel like the surgery is a distant memory. Most aneurysms these days are done via an endovascular approach where they go through the groin or the arm through the blood vessels. Recovery from that surgery tends to be faster as the pain is minimal.

In general we usually wait about 6 months after an injury to the nerves in the legs or arms to see how much they can recover. Depending on the injury, sometimes a specialized peripheral nerve surgeon can repair or graft the nerve. It is a complicated decision and depends on the type of injury and time since the injury happened.

They can but not usually. The initial treatment is usually by your primary doctor with medication and physical therapy. If that fails they can consider an MRI of the lower back and a referral to a spine surgeon

In general, you can start with discussing with your primary doctor. Muscle relaxants and physical therapy usually fixes 80% of neck problems. If the pain is associated with radiation of pain to the arms an MRI of the cervical spine should be considered and a referral to spine surgery.

It depends. In many cases, a mass on the pituitary stalk is something called a rathke's cleft cyst. They are benign but can grow by getting filled with fluid and require surgery. In most cases those masses are followed by MRI and if they start growing of causing significant pressure against the optic nerves they need surgery.

You need to talk to your surgeon again. In some cases patients can have reherniation after surgery since there is a hole in the disc from the original herniation where additional material can come out. This is particularly true if your symptoms got better after surgery and then returned. An MRI is usually indicated in those cases.

It is probably some scar tissue in the area. If it hurts when you press it that can simply be some bruising. If you lost consciousness at the time of the event you should have been seen in a hospital to make sure there was no fracture or blood in the brain from the impact.

Radiation is not a good option for treatment of ventricular cysts. Those should be opened and sometimes the cyst wall has to be removed to prevent re formation of the cyst. In many cases they are benign and can be simply monitored as long as they don't cause symptoms

Your MRI certainly shows narrowing on the cervical spine against the spinal cord. It is hard to gauge from the images how much pressure there is agains the spinal cord. The bottom line is, if you are having clumsiness, dropping objects and being clumsy, that should be addressed immediately, not months later. The thoracic spine does not control the arms, therefore it is inconsequential to the arm symptoms. That MRI can be done later if needed. If you are not happy with your current medical management, seek another opinion. However, I would not wait months to address those symptoms or developing weakness. In some cases it may require going to the emergency room, particularly if you live close to a hospital that has spine surgeons, so they can do an acute assessment.

That is likely a normal space in the brain. Sometimes you can see that depending on how the MRI was cut.

Yes they can but should be cleared by their neurologists prior to engaging in that activity to make sure their vision and reflexes are appropriate.

In general the answer is no. But if you take blood thinners your doctor may want to check your coagulation to make sure you will not have significant bleeding during the test.

Yes. Any sign of stroke should be immediately evaluated. Furthermore, that person should be on certain medications to avoid another stroke from happening.