Journal of neurosurgery
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A small percentage of patients will develop a completely new or de novo aneurysm after discovery of an initial aneurysm. The natural history of these lesions is unknown. The authors undertook this statistical evaluation a large cohort of patients with both ruptured and unruptured de novo aneurysms with the aim of analyzing risk factors for rupture and estimating a risk of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). ⋯ While rare, de novo aneurysms may have a risk for SAH that is comparatively higher than the risk associated with similarly sized, small, initially discovered unruptured saccular aneurysms. The authors therefore recommend long-term follow-up for all patients with aneurysms, and they consider a more aggressive treatment strategy for de novo aneurysms than for incidentally discovered initial aneurysms.
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Journal of neurosurgery · Jan 2013
Motor evoked potential monitoring of the vagus nerve with transcranial electrical stimulation during skull base surgeries.
Dysphasia is one of the most serious complications of skull base surgeries and results from damage to the brainstem and/or cranial nerves involved in swallowing. Here, the authors propose a method to monitor the function of the vagus nerve using endotracheal tube surface electrodes and transcranial electrical stimulation during skull base surgeries. ⋯ Vagal MEP monitoring with transcranial electrical stimulation and endotracheal tube electrode recording was a safe and effective method to provide continuous real-time information on the integrity of both the supranuclear and infranuclear vagal pathway. This method is useful to prevent intraoperative injury of the brainstem corticobulbar tract or the vagal rootlets and to avoid the postoperative dysphagia that is often associated with brainstem or skull base surgeries.
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The authors have developed a technique for the treatment of facial paralysis that utilizes anastomosis of the split hypoglossal and facial nerve. Here, they document improvements in the procedure and experimental evidence supporting the approach. ⋯ The split hypoglossal-facial nerve anastomosis procedure consistently leads to good facial reanimation, and the use of either half of the split hypoglossal nerve results in facial reanimation and moderate tongue atrophy.