You would have to ask a current fellow whether they get to operate...I just don't know. But the staff are very committed to the fellowship so I would think the experience is excellent.
As far as the accreditation, it is a new fellowship and I'm not certain how this accreditation process works, but I would think a large part of it involves a well-rounded education in all aspects of spine surgery. At Cincinnati, you have a ton of deformity at one of the busiest children's hospitals in the country, you have a very busy level 1 trauma center at the university, and at least 6 busy surgeons, both ortho and neurosurg...some do lots of deformity, some lots of degen/trauma/MIS/etc. The fellowship is accredited for 3 fellows and I would think the reason for this is the high volume and the mixture of pediatric and adult, degenerative, deformity, trauma, MIS in addition to tumor. I'm a former resident at this program and I think this is a very good fellowship with a lot of potential. All aspects of the spine are covered. But it is a new fellowship and obviously not as established as others yet.
