Spinal Surgery

Code:

OPT162

Acronym:

CCV

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Medicine

Instance: 2019/2020 - 2S (of 10-02-2020 to 31-07-2020)

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Clinical Neurosciences and Mental Health Department
Course/CS Responsible:	Integrated Master in Medicine

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MIMED	4	Mestrado Integrado em Medicina- Plano oficial 2013 (Reforma Curricular)	5	-	3	28	81

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

- Learn about the most frequent spine diseases in clinical practice and their semiology.
- Make a rational use of ancillary diagnostic exams.
- Practice clinical managment of patients with spine related complains.
- Recognize the clinical conditions that require surgical treatment and their priority.
- Be acquainted with the most common spinal surgical procedures.

Learning outcomes and competences

At the end of this unit the students should be able to:
- Identify the most common spinal diseases in clinical practice
- Assess patients with spinal diseases
- Perform neurological examination on patients with spinal diseases
- Ask for ancillary diagnostic exams after clinical examination and have basic knowledge about its interpretation
- Design a therapeutic plan for patients with degenerative spinal pathologies

Working method

Presencial

Pre-requirements (prior knowledge) and co-requirements (common knowledge)

Basical knowledge of Neurology and Neurosurgery, and surgical techniques.

Program

- Epidemiology of spine disorders.
- Imaging of the spine, spinal cord and nerve roots.
- Diadnostic neurophysiological examinations and intraoperative neuromonitoring.
- Degenerative spine disorders (cervical and lumbar disc herniation, spondylotic radiculopathy, cervical spondylotic myelopathy, degenerative lumbar stenosis).
- Spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis.
- Spinal metastatic disease, multiple myeloma and other spine and spinal cord tumors.
- Disorders of the craniocervical junction.
- Cauda equina syndrome.
- Spinal cord injury.
- Basic concepts of spine deformity.
- Conservative treatment and rehabilitation.
- Percutaneous spinal diagnostic and therapeutic techniques.
- Spine surgery.

Mandatory literature

Albert, T & Vaccaro, A.; Physical examination of the spine, 2017
Anderson, D. & Vaccaro, A.; Decision making in spine care, 2013
Baaj, A., Mummaneni, P., Uribe, J. Vaccaro, A. & Greenburg, M.; Handbook of spine surgery, 2016

Teaching methods and learning activities

- Spinal diseases account for more than 5'% of the causes of physical disability in working ages and are a major cause of work-related absenteeism worldwide. In Portugal, the indirect costs of chronic low back and joints pain were estimated for 2010 at more than 700 million euros, and the lumbar region is the most frequent location of chronic pain.
- The knowledge about degenerative spine diseases and an acquaintance with its semiology, ancillary diagnostic exams and clinical managment are of utmost important in the scope of primary health care. It is mandatory to learm how to properly manage patients with spinal disorders, establishing priorities and avoiding errors, while rationalizing resources and costs.
- Getting acquainted with the most common spine surgeries, considering the prevalence of spinal disorders in the general population, adds value to the transmission of adequate and scientifically correct information to patients.

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

Designation	Weight (%)
Participação presencial	40,00
Trabalho de campo	30,00
Apresentação/discussão de um trabalho científico	30,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Designation	Time (hours)
Estudo autónomo	55,00
Frequência das aulas	24,00
Apresentação/discussão de um trabalho científico	2,00
Trabalho de campo	0,00
Total:	81,00

Eligibility for exams

80% of presences

Calculation formula of final grade

Self-assessment - 40%
Continuous evaluation (including presentation and discussion of clinical case or topic) - 60%

Examinations or Special Assignments

No

Internship work/project

Voluntary

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

No

Classification improvement

Oral examinaxion

Observations

No