Acta neurochirurgica
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Acta neurochirurgica · Aug 2010
The influence of transcutaneous electrical neurostimulation (TENS) on human cerebral blood flow velocities.
It has been shown that transcutaneous electrical neurostimulation (TENS) reduces sympathetic tone. Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) has proven qualities to improve coronary, peripheral, and cerebral blood circulation. Therefore, we postulate that TENS and SCS affect the autonomic nervous system in analogous ways. In this line of thought, cervical application of TENS might be a useful and simple adjunct in the treatment of cerebrovascular disease by improving cerebral blood flow. Experiments were performed in order to assess whether cervical TENS is safe and whether an effect on cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) can be shown in healthy subjects. ⋯ In these experiments, application of cervical TENS is proven to be a safe procedure. However, no effects on cerebral blood flow velocity could be detected, perhaps due to the intact cerebral autoregulation in the healthy volunteers.
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Acta neurochirurgica · Aug 2010
The first 50s: can we achieve acceptable results in vestibular schwannoma surgery from the beginning?
Vestibular schwannoma surgery requires a profound knowledge of anatomy and long-standing experience of surgical skull base techniques, as patients nowadays requests high-quality results from any surgeon. This educes a dilemma for the young neurosurgeon as she/he is at the beginning of a learning curve. The presented series should prove if surgical results of young skull base surgeons are comparable respecting carefully planned educational steps. ⋯ The results demonstrate that with careful established educational plans in skull base surgery, excellent clinical and functional results can be achieved even by young neurosurgeons.