Neurosurgery
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Multicenter Study
Validation of the supplemented Spetzler-Martin grading system for brain arteriovenous malformations in a multicenter cohort of 1009 surgical patients.
The supplementary grading system for brain arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) was introduced in 2010 as a tool for improving preoperative risk prediction and selecting surgical patients. ⋯ This study validates the predictive accuracy of the SM-Supp system in a multicenter cohort. An SM-Supp grade of 6 is a cutoff or boundary for AVM operability. Supplemented grading is currently the best method of estimating neurological outcomes after AVM surgery, and we recommend it as a starting point in the evaluation of AVM operability.
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Multiple national initiatives seek to curb spending to address increasing healthcare costs in the United States. The Choosing Wisely initiative is a popular initiative that focuses on reducing healthcare spending by setting guidelines to limit tests and procedures requested by patients and ordered by physicians. To reduce spending on neuroimaging, the Choosing Wisely initiative and other organizations have offered guidelines to limit neuroimaging for headaches. ⋯ If adopted by governing or funding organizations, these guidelines threaten to negatively affect the care and outcomes of patients with brain tumors, who frequently present with minimal symptoms or isolated headaches syndromes. As physicians grapple with the difficult conflict between evidence-based cost-cutting guidelines and individualized patient-tailored medicine, they must carefully balance the costs and benefits of discretionary services such as neuroimaging for headaches. By participating in the development of validated clinical decision rules on neuroimaging for headaches, neurosurgeons can advocate for their patients and improve their patients' outcomes.
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The endovascular treatment of middle cerebral artery (MCA) aneurysms has been controversial because of the frequency of complex anatomy and the relative ease of surgical clipping in this location. ⋯ Endovascular treatment of MCA aneurysms can be safe and effective. However, it is associated with a high asymptomatic thromboembolic event rate that is more frequent in the setting of acute subarachnoid hemorrhage.
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Current American Heart Association guidelines recommend carotid revascularization for asymptomatic patients on the basis of life expectancy. ⋯ Risks and benefits must be carefully weighed before carotid revascularization in elderly patients with asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis who have concurrent atrial fibrillation or chronic renal failure.
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Head impact direction has been identified as an influential risk factor in the risk of traumatic brain injury (TBI) from animal and anatomic research; however, to date, there has been little investigation into this relationship in human subjects. If a susceptibility to certain types of TBI based on impact direction was found to exist in humans, it would aid in clinical diagnoses as well as prevention methods for these types of injuries. ⋯ This hospital data set suggests that there is an effect that impact direction has on TBI depending on the anatomy involved for each particular lesion.