Neurosurgery
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Biography Historical Article
Francois Quesnay and the birth of brain surgery.
The life and contributions to neurosurgery of Francois Quesnay, a French surgeon who was active during the mid-18th century, are presented. Quesnay, still famous as economist and as the founder of one of the earliest systems of economics, is largely forgotten as a surgeon, although he was the first to advocate cortical incision and exploration of the brain for abscesses and tumors.
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Case Reports
Concurrent pineoblastoma and unilateral retinoblastoma: a forme fruste of trilateral retinoblastoma?
A 10-month-old boy who presented with strabismus and symptoms of intracranial hypertension was found to have a pineoblastoma and a unilateral ocular retinoblastoma. Despite enucleation of the eye, subtotal removal of the pineoblastoma, and craniospinal axis irradiation, the patient died 6 months later from disseminated intracranial neoplasm. As there was no clinical evidence of bilateral retinoblastoma, this case may represent a forme fruste of the trilateral retinoblastoma complex. The clinicopathological features of this unusual syndrome are reviewed.
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We reviewed the records of 100 consecutive patients with histologically verified pituitary adenomas who underwent transsphenoidal decompression of the optic nerves and chiasm. The patients' ages ranged from 18 to 80 years, with a median of 52 years. Preoperatively, all patients had objective signs of visual acuity or field defects. ⋯ The average duration of follow-up was 26 months. Three patients required a subsequent operation to correct visual loss in the immediate postoperative period, but only 1 patient has undergone late operation for recurrence of tumor. There was no operative mortality.