General neurosurgery
Dr. Zünkeler has practiced general adult neurosurgery since first starting in Baltimore in 1997. General neurosurgery encompasses the nonoperative and operative treatment of conditions of the brain, spine, and peripheral nerves. The majority of patients seen by general neurosurgeons do not require a surgical intervention and often improve with nonoperative treatment alone. At this time, Dr. Zünkeler performs small outpatient procedures (including CT-guided epidural steroid injections) to help with the diagnosis and treatment of neurosurgical conditions.
In cases in which Dr. Zünkeler does not currently perform the necessary surgical procedure, he will provide patients with the names and contact information of colleagues in the community or at one of the area universities who are proficient in performing that procedure.
Dr. Zünkeler has an interest in the treatment of patients with chronic degenerative conditions of the spine, including care after spinal surgeries that resulted in incomplete relief of symptoms. Other areas of interest include treatment of patients after head and spinal cord injuries of all degrees of severity.
What is neurosurgery?
Neurological surgery is a surgical specialty that provides treatment for pain or pathological processes that may modify the function or activity of the central nervous system (e.g. brain, hypophysis, and spinal cord), the peripheral nervous system (e.g. cranial, spinal, and peripheral nerves), the autonomic nervous system, the supporting structures of these systems (e.g. meninges, skull and skull base, and vertebral column), and their vascular supply (e.g., intracranial, extracranial, and spinal vasculature).
Treatment encompasses both nonoperative management (e.g. prevention, diagnosis and image interpretation, and treatments such as, but not limited to, neurocritical intensive care and rehabilitation) and operative management with its associated image use and interpretation (e.g. endovascular surgery, functional and restorative surgery, stereotactic radiosurgery, and spinal fusion and instrumentation).
The American Board of Neurological Surgery