Washington, D.C. is home to 143 practicing neurologists who have offices in 2 counties and 17 zip codes, including zip codes 20010, 20007, 20037, 20307, 20017, 20422, 20032, 20016, 20060, 20036, 20420, 20306, 20015, 20009, 20008, 20003, and 20001.

According to 2005 Census estimates, Washington, D.C. has a population of 550,521, which gives it a specialist to resident ratio of 1 neurologist for every 3,849 residents.

Description

Neurology is the study of disorders of the nervous system. A neurologist is a physician who diagnoses and treats nervous system disorders of the brain, spinal cord and nerves. This specialist deals with problems related to brain disease, disorders of the brain, spinal cord, and the nerves, and the blood vessels that provide circulation to these organs. A neurologist also treats specific diseases such as Bell’s palsy, cerebellar ataxia and meningitis.

Diseases / Illnesses Treated

Physicians in this specialty treat patients suffering from numerous diseases and illnesses, but some of the most common are stroke, guillain-barré syndrome, brain tumor, migraine, meningitis, seizure, parkinson's disease, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, coma, multiple sclerosis, alzheimer's disease, cluster headache, ischemic stroke, encephalitis, encephalopathy, botulism, chorea, lou gehrig's disease, and ataxia.

Procedures Performed

Once properly diagnosed, practitioners can perform numerous procedures on patients including electroconvulsive therapy and electroencephalogram (eeg).

Tests Performed

To diagnose patients with possible illnesses and diseases, specialists will often perform one of many tests including  cat scan of the brain, ct scan of the brain, mri scan of the brain, mri scan of the spine, magnetic resonance imaging (mri), computed axial tomography (ct or cat scan), myelogram, spinal tap, lumbar puncture (lp), electromyography (emg), myelography, positron emission tomography (pet scan), spinal puncture, nerve conduction velocity (ncv), electroencephalography, cerebral angiogram, electronystagmography (eng), ocular pressures, csf collection, and myogram.