Functional neurosurgery

It is a great honour to write the editorial for this month’s CMEcomponent of the SAMJ. Functional neurosurgery is a subdivision ofneurosurgery that does not always receive the recognition we feel thatit deserves among general medical practitioners. It is definitely theless ‘sexy’ component of neurosurgery compared with vascular andskull base neurosurgery, but it is an important and highly specialisedpart of our field. There are currently only one academic unit andabout five private sector units that perform functional neurosurgeryprocedures on a regular basis in South Africa. This, unfortunately,leads to many patients and their medical caregivers not knowingabout the options available to them on their doorstep. Patients do notneed to leave the country to search for help in other countries