I went and saw a few surgeons as well before my surgery and I thought I choose the best one. He was the top neurosurgeon in my city 4 years in a row at a reputable hospital. He said he's done many MVDs and had great results. The day I first saw him, he had done an MVD the prior day and the man woke up pain free. So again, I'm just going by what I am seeing and hearing.
At the local support group, they had an entire meeting about how little the surgeons follow up the patients. And it's not even the surgeons I expect to do it. It could just be a telemarketer-type person making phone calls.
There are a ton of surgeons out there doing MVDs, but in my city, at least from what I am hearing at meeting and from people, is that very few have had anyone ask them how they are doing post-op. And I don't mean just a few months either. They need to follow these patients for years. TN comes back a lot, and this should be documented. Again, I am not saying that no surgeon is doing follow ups, I'm just saying it like I see it.
I've meet a few of the people from Striking Back and while they had great experiences in the beginning, they had the TN come back and are now at square one again. So it does come back sometimes.
They need to do more follow ups. I was told I was too young to have TN at 29 b/c my old neuro was told it was never seen in anyone younger than 50. I guess that stuff needs to be updated as well. I know that doctors aren't gods, but they need to do a little more paperwork, even if they hire a 17-yr-old intern to do the phone calls.