Journal of neurosurgery
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Journal of neurosurgery · Oct 2011
ReviewInfluence of surgical or endovascular treatment on visual symptoms caused by intracranial aneurysms: single-center series and systematic review.
Intracranial aneurysms of the anterior circulation might become symptomatic by causing visual deficits. The influence of treatment modality on improvement is still unclear. The objective of this study was to analyze the recovery of visual deficits caused by the mass effect of intracranial aneurysms after surgical clipping or endovascular treatment. ⋯ Aneurysm-related visual dysfunction developed from direct mechanical compression may improve after surgical clipping and endovascular coiling. However, based on the present series combined with pooled analysis of data from the literature, the only factor significantly associated with improvement of visual dysfunction was surgical clipping.
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Many neurosurgeons remove their patients' hair before surgery. They claim that this practice reduces the chance of postoperative surgical site infections, and facilitates planning, attachment of the drapes, and closure. However, most patients dread this procedure. ⋯ None of these papers provided evidence that preoperative shaving decreases the occurrence of postoperative wound infections. The authors conclude that there is no evidence to support the routine performance of preoperative hair removal in neurosurgery. Therefore, properly designed studies are needed to provide evidence for preoperative shaving recommendations.
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Journal of neurosurgery · Oct 2011
Proteomic identification of glutamine synthetase as a differential marker for oligodendrogliomas and astrocytomas.
Astrocytomas and oligodendrogliomas are primary CNS tumors that remain a challenge to differentiate histologically because of their morphological variability and because there is a lack of reliable differential diagnostic markers. To identify proteins that are differentially expressed between astrocytomas and oligodendrogliomas, the authors analyzed the proteomic expression patterns and identified uniquely expressed proteins in these neoplasms. ⋯ These data indicate that glutamine synthetase expression can be used to distinguish astrocytic from oligodendroglial tumors and may play a role in the pathogenesis of astrocytomas.