The doctor said he needs 'Neurosurgery' or 'brain surgery' or 'cerebral surgery' because a serious brain injury caused by an accident.


Are they all correct? If so, which one is most common in colloquial English? Thank you!

 

I've never heard the term cerebral surgery. Isn't all surgery cerebral?

I'd say brain surgery is more common than neurosurgery. I've only heard neurosurgery used in the context of describing a surgeon's or a hospital's specialty, not in a sentence like yours.

Edit: Just googled cerebral surgery and found it is used quite a bit.

 

Certainly neurosurgery and brain surgery mean different things. Neurosurgery doesn't only involve the brain, it applies to the body's nervous system overall. I suspect brain surgery and cerebral surgery are synonyms.