Journal of neurosurgery
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Journal of neurosurgery · May 2020
Impact of skull density ratio on efficacy and safety of magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound treatment of essential tremor.
Skull density ratio (SDR) assesses the transparency of the skull to ultrasound. Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) thalamotomy in essential tremor (ET) patients with a lower SDR may be less effective, and the risk for complications may be increased. To address these questions, the authors analyzed clinical outcomes of MRgFUS thalamotomy based on SDRs. ⋯ MRgFUS treatment of ET can be effectively and safely performed in patients with an SDR < 0.45 and an SDR < 0.40, although the procedure is more efficient when SDR ≥ 0.45.
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Journal of neurosurgery · May 2020
Context-dependent relationship in high-resolution micro-ECoG studies during finger movements.
The activation of the sensorimotor cortex as measured by electrocorticographic (ECoG) signals has been correlated with contralateral hand movements in humans, as precisely as the level of individual digits. However, the relationship between individual and multiple synergistic finger movements and the neural signal as detected by ECoG has not been fully explored. The authors used intraoperative high-resolution micro-ECoG (µECoG) on the sensorimotor cortex to link neural signals to finger movements across several context-specific motor tasks. ⋯ HG-filtered µECoG signals effectively identify dominant regions associated with thumb and index finger movement. For pinch, the µECoG signal comprises a combination of the signals from individual thumb and index movements. However, while the relationship between the index finger joint angle and HG-filtered signal remains consistent between conditions, there is not a fixed relationship for thumb movement. Although the HG-filtered µECoG signal is similar in both thumb-only and pinch conditions, the actual thumb movement is markedly smaller in the pinch condition than in the thumb-only condition. This implies a nonlinear relationship between the cortical signal and the motor output for some, but importantly not all, movement types. This analysis provides insight into the tuning of the motor cortex toward specific types of motor behaviors.
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Journal of neurosurgery · May 2020
Local tumor progression treated with Gamma Knife radiosurgery: differences between patients with 2-4 versus 5-10 brain metastases based on an update of a multi-institutional prospective observational study (JLGK0901).
The Japanese Leksell Gamma Knife (JLGK)0901 study proved the efficacy of Gamma Knife radiosurgery (GKRS) in patients with 5-10 brain metastases (BMs) as compared to those with 2-4, showing noninferiority in overall survival and other secondary endpoints. However, the difference in local tumor progression between patients with 2-4 and those with 5-10 BMs has not been sufficiently examined for this data set. Thus, the authors reappraised this issue, employing the updated JLGK0901 data set with detailed observation via enhanced MRI. They applied sophisticated statistical methods to analyze the data. ⋯ Local tumor progression incidences did not differ between groups B and C. This study proved that tumor progression after GKRS without whole-brain radiation therapy for patients with 5-10 BMs was satisfactorily treated with the doses prescribed according to the JLGK0901 study protocol and that results were not inferior to those in patients with a single or 2-4 BMs.Clinical trial registration no.: UMIN000001812 (umin.ac.jp).
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Journal of neurosurgery · May 2020
Effect of perioperative aspirin use on hemorrhagic complications in elective craniotomy for brain tumors: results of a single-center, retrospective cohort study.
In daily practice, neurosurgeons face increasing numbers of patients using aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid, ASA). While many of these patients discontinue ASA 7-10 days prior to elective intracranial surgery, there are limited data to support whether or not perioperative ASA use heightens the risk of hemorrhagic complications. In this study the authors retrospectively evaluated the safety of perioperative ASA use in patients undergoing craniotomy for brain tumors in the largest elective cranial surgery cohort reported to date. ⋯ In this cohort, perioperative ASA use was not associated with the increased rate of hemorrhagic complications following intracranial tumor surgery. In patients at high cardiovascular risk, ASA can safely be continued during elective brain tumor surgery to prevent potential life-threatening thromboembolic complications. Randomized clinical trials with larger sample sizes are warranted to achieve a greater statistical power.
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Journal of neurosurgery · May 2020
Comparing two randomized deep brain stimulation trials for Parkinson's disease.
Several randomized studies have compared the effect of deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus with the best medical treatment in large groups of patients. Important outcome measures differ between studies. Two such major studies, the life-quality study of the German Competence Network for Parkinson's disease (LQ study) and the US Veterans Affairs/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke trial (VA/NINDS trial), were compared here in order to understand their differences in outcomes. ⋯ This comparison suggests that patient selection criteria, especially preoperative LDR, are the most important source of differences in motor outcomes and quality of life between the two studies.