Journal of neurosurgery
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Journal of neurosurgery · Jul 2019
Interfacility neurosurgical transfers: an analysis of nontraumatic inpatient and emergency department transfers with implications for improvements in care.
Interfacility neurosurgical transfers to tertiary care centers are driven by a number of variables, including lack of on-site coverage, limited available technology, insurance factors, and patient preference. The authors sought to assess the timing and necessity of surgery and compared transfers to their institution from emergency departments (ED) and inpatient units at other hospitals. ⋯ The authors present their 12-month experience from a single tertiary care center without Level I trauma designation. In this cohort, 65% of patients required surgery, but the rates were higher among inpatient referrals, and misdiagnosis rates were higher among ED transfers. These data suggest that admitting nonemergency patients to local hospitals may improve diagnostic accuracy of patients requiring urgent care, more precisely identify patients in need of transfer, and reduce costs. Referring facilities may lack necessary resources or expertise, and the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) obligates tertiary care centers to accept these patients under those circumstances. Telemedicine and integration of electronic medical records may help guide referring hospitals to pursue additional workup, which may eliminate the need for unnecessary transfer and provide additional cost savings.
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Journal of neurosurgery · Jul 2019
Endoscopic clipping of intraventricular aneurysms using the "wet-field" technique.
Intraventricular hemorrhage and intracerebral aneurysms are relatively frequent complications associated with moyamoya disease. Prevention of aneurysm rerupture is important because it significantly decreases the morbidity and mortality rates. Aneurysms arising distal to collateral flow are sometimes observed in patients with intraventricular hemorrhage; however, the treatment of these aneurysms remains challenging because of their deep-seated location in the brain and accompanying narrow surgical corridor. ⋯ The patients' postoperative courses were uneventful, and CT angiography revealed complete clipping of the aneurysms and patent parent arteries. Endoscopic clipping using a tubular retractor is an effective and less invasive alternative for treating intraventricular aneurysms. The wet-field endoscopic technique is performed in an aqueous field and maintains an intact ventricle size, allowing for a clear surgical view and a wider, enhanced surgical field.
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Journal of neurosurgery · Jul 2019
Professionalism and performance issues during neurosurgical training and job satisfaction after training: a single training center 50-year experience.
Neurosurgery is often self-selecting. Concern has been raised that residents in the millennial era (born between 1982 and 2004) may have more serious professionalism and performance issues (PPIs) during training compared to prior trainees. Serious PPIs were defined as concerns that led to specific resident disciplinary actions ranging from initial warnings to termination. In order to evaluate this concern, the authors retrospectively reviewed a 50-year experience at a single training center. They then prospectively surveyed living graduates of the program to assess variations in practice patterns and job satisfaction over 5 decades. ⋯ There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of serious PPIs over 5 decades of training neurosurgery residents at the authors' institution. During the millennial era, serious PPIs have not been increasing. However, reporting of all levels of PPIs is increasing coincident with the ease of electronic reporting. There was remarkably little variance in satisfaction metrics or type of practice over the 5 decades studied.