Clinical Examination

The collection of medical history and clinical examination still hold a central importance—despite all advanced technical examinations. This is particularly true for preoperative decision-making processes and the indication for surgery. For the surgeon, every diagnosis must be comprehensible and verifiable. He should by no means blindly rely on the provided electrophysiological and imaging findings. Incorrectly collected or wrongly interpreted neurophysiological data are unfortunately not uncommon. If the delivered findings and the symptoms do not match, every surgeon must become alert and ask questions. He must be aware that in every indication for surgery, the clinical symptoms—primarily the patient’s complaints and the clinical findings—take precedence. The patient’s description of complaints and his precise clinical examination, supplemented by the technical examination results, are still the basis of every diagnosis.