Common Patient Questions and Answers

On this page Dr. Ahuja and the staff at Neurosurgery and Endovascular Associates answer some of the questions that are most frequently asked by patients regarding neurosurgery and endovascular care.

Of course, you may have specific questions regarding a particular condition or procedure.
If that’s the case, we welcome you to call our main office.

• New patients should arrive 15 minutes early.
  (This allows time to register you properly. If you are an established patient, please update our staff with any address, phone number, or insurance changes that may have occurred since your last visit.)
• You will be asked to bring any medical records and radiology films (MRI, CT, etc.) that relate to your visit and a current list of all medications and any history of drug allergies.
• Please allow 1–1.5 hours for your first appointment if you are a new patient. Your medical history, all reports, and x-rays will be reviewed so that Dr. Ahuja can recommend the appropriate treatment. If surgery is recommended, the benefits and risks will be explained to you in full detail.

Our office staff will make every attempt to honor all time commitments. We ask that you do the same for us. If for any reason you are unable to keep a scheduled appointment, please call our main office as soon as possible to cancel or reschedule.

Because emergencies are common in neurosurgery, Dr. Ahuja may be delayed during office hours. We will make every attempt to see you as soon as possible. If you cannot wait, we will reschedule your appointment for the next available time.

If you are a new patient and have scheduled an appointment, it’ll be helpful (but not required) to fill out our New Patient Form beforehand.
Just click this link to open the document (Adobe Reader is required), print it out, complete the form, and bring it with you.

Dr. Ahuja treats a variety of back and spinal conditions such as disc herniation, spinal stenosis, back pain, neck pain and degenerative disc disease.

He also treats high risk medical emergent conditions such as malignant and benign tumors of the brain and spinal cord, cerebral aneurysms, and acute strokes.

See a full list of all the conditions Dr. Ahuja treats here.

Some conditions can be treated without surgery. We will attempt to reduce symptoms with physical therapy, medications, stretches, steroid injections where appropriate, and activity modification as necessary.

The gold standard for many conditions such as cerebral aneurysms or carotid stenosis is surgery. In many cases this is still the preferred method of treating these conditions.

However, endovascular treatment may be preferred in situations where the condition cannot be reached surgically or where the patient’s medical condition is such that surgery may not be as safe.

Some situations are such that either method could be used. Dr. Ahuja will discuss in detail both types of procedures as they apply to a specific condition.

The determination for surgery is when nonsurgical methods are unsuccessful in treating discomfort, and the patient’s daily life is negatively affected by pain.

In general, the patient will be able to return to work 1-3 months after surgery, although he or she will continue to heal for up to 12 months. People heal faster if they stay active and participate in therapy as ordered.

In a true emergency, or if you feel the problem is life threatening, please call 9-1-1.

If you are experiencing a less urgent problem or severe pain, please call our main office during regular hours or when our offices are closed leave a message with our 24-hour answering service. We will have someone call you as soon as possible.

If you are calling for a prescription refill, please call our main office during regular office hours only. Give your name, telephone number of your pharmacy, and medication name and number.

Please allow 24 hours for all prescriptions to be called in. If a prescription refill is denied for any reason, our staff will contact you.

In order to keep accurate medical records, we do not fill prescriptions during evening or weekend hours as patient records may not be available during these times.

We will file all of your insurance claims (both primary and secondary) for all office visits and any surgical procedure that you have.

It is your responsibility to keep our staff updated with any changes in your insurance coverage. You are responsible for obtaining any referrals that are needed from your primary care physician.

We accept Visa/Mastercard as payment for services. Co-payments are due on the date of service.

If you do not have insurance coverage, we will work with you to set up a payment plan. A down payment will be required for services if you do not have insurance coverage.

Both lightheadedness and dizziness have many causes. Although infrequent, cervical stenosis may be a cause of lightheadedness or dizziness if other more common causes are ruled out.

Many of the conservative measures for neck and back pain can be utilized together.

If one of the symptoms exceeds the other, focusing on the most painful or debilitating symptom first is usually the best option for improving quality of life quickly and returning to more normal functioning.

Both chronic neck and back pain are lifetime conditions, and it is not unusual to have long periods of relatively symptom-free time mixed with periods of discomfort.

Muscle relaxers, anti-inflammatory medications and physical therapy can be very helpful in reducing flare-ups to a more manageable situation.

The symptoms of a mini stroke (also known as a transient ischemic attack, or TIA) are the same as stroke symptoms for both men and women.

Mini stroke symptoms reverse within 24 hours while full stroke symptoms can be long lasting or permanent. When a person has symptoms of a stroke, they need immediate medical treatment.

It is not possible to tell at the onset if these symptoms will resolve on their own, or if the patient will need other treatment to reduce the possibility of long term disability or death.

• Most of our surgeries are minimally-invasive and treatment is personalized.
• Surgery is easily scheduled, and someone at Neurosurgery and Endovascular Associates is always on call to answer patient questions and concerns.
• Our surgery suite and treatment and diagnostics facilities are all in the same building- on the same floor! So you don’t have to worry about navigating the maze of a hospital or going up and down elevators to get to your procedure.
• We are adamant about CDC sanitation guidelines to keep our facility COVID-free.
• Our low patient to staff ratio means we are 100% in control of patient safety and care.
• Our patients are guaranteed to see Dr. Ahuja at each visit- regardless of if it is just for a checkup or treatment initiative- and a mid-level nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant will also be present to ensure quality of care.

The staff at Neurosurgery and Endovascular and Associates want you to live a happy, healthy, and pain-free life!

We have recorded a series of videos discussing tips, exercises, and other frequently-asked neurosurgery and other general health questions.