“Can you have outpatient brain surgery in an ambulatory surgery center?” That’s the question neurosurgeon Richard Menger, MD, MPA, tackles in an article for Forbes that encourages current and future patients not to dismiss the idea outright.
Dr. Menger, who is also a political scientist, is vice chair of neurosurgery, chief of complex spine surgery and director of the USA (University of South Alabama) Health Spine Institute. He notes that same-day brain surgeries are already happening.
Richard Menger, MD, MPA
“This is not peripheral experimentation but the logical evolution of contemporary neurosurgery, grounded in robust, peer-reviewed outcomes from high-volume centers,” he writes. “For decades, the phrase ‘brain surgery’ conjured images of sterile hospital operating rooms, multi-day ICU stays, and six-figure bills. That era is drawing to a close. Pioneering neurosurgeons are now safely performing intracranial and spinal procedures in ASCs…The data are unequivocal: when executed in the appropriate setting by experienced teams, these procedures yield equal or superior safety profiles, markedly elevated patient satisfaction and cost reductions of 30-50% or more.”
Dr. Menger, who performs brain surgery himself in the ASC, examines the issue from the perspective of patients, surgeons and payors, explains why ASCs “matter for society,” and describes the “path forward” for the ASC model in brain surgery. He concludes that the value of the ASC model is “no longer theoretical. It is not merely shifting cases; it is fundamentally improving the human experience of neurosurgical care.”
Read Dr. Menger’s full opinion piece here.
