Child's nervous system : ChNS : official journal of the International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery
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Review Multicenter Study
Anesthesia and intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring in children.
Anesthesia for pediatric patients undergoing surgery where intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IONM) is performed is based on an understanding of the anesthetic influence on the neural pathways involved and the physiology that supplies nutrients to the neural systems. Anesthesia in pediatric patients may be different than in adults due to the specific anesthesia considerations in children, notably the propofol infusion syndrome (PRIS) and the need to monitor immature neural pathways. This review was done to determine if the anesthesia protocols used were different than those used in adults. ⋯ Anesthesia for pediatric patients undergoing surgery where IONM is being performed is consistent with the practice and principles of anesthesia for adults. Although PRIS has not caused major alterations in most patients, concern has modified the practice of some anesthesiologists.
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Review Case Reports
Intramedullary spinal cord tumor surgery: can we do it without intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring?
The objective of this review is to discuss the utilization of intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IONM) during spinal cord tumor surgery. ⋯ We argue that IONM should be the standard of care for the treatment of such pathology, and a number of issues supporting this argument are discussed.
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Intraoperative neurophysiological techniques are becoming routine tools for neurosurgical practice. Procedures affecting the lumbosacral nervous system are frequent in adult and pediatric neurosurgery. This review provides an overview of the techniques utilized in cauda and conus operations. ⋯ A range of intraoperative neurophysiological techniques are available for neurophysiological testing of the neural structures of conus medullaris and cauda equina.
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The diagnosis, treatment, and prediction of outcome in pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) present significant challenges to the treating clinician. Clinical and radiological tools for assessing injury severity and predicting outcome, in particular, lack sensitivity and specificity. In patients with mild TBI, often there is uncertainty about which patients should undergo radiological imaging and who is at risk for long term neurological sequelae. In severe TBI, often there is uncertainty about which patients will experience secondary insults and what the outcome for individual patients will be. In several other clinical specialties, biomarkers are used to diagnose disease, direct treatment, and prognosticate. However, an ideal biomarker for brain injury has not been found. ⋯ The potential uses and limitations of these biomarkers in the context of TBI are discussed.
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Inflammation is an stereotypical response to tissue damage and has been extensively documented in experimental and clinical traumatic brain injury (TBI), including children. ⋯ The initiation and orchestration of inflammation in TBI, as in other tissues, is complex and multifactorial encompassing pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, adhesion molecules, complement factors, reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, and other undefined factors. It is evident that inflammation can have both beneficial and detrimental effects in TBI, but the mechanisms underlying this dichotomy are mostly unknown. Modification of the inflammatory response may be neuroprotective. Monitoring inflammation is now possible with techniques such as microdialysis; however, the prognostic value of measuring inflammatory mediators in TBI is still unclear with conflicting reports. Except for corticosteroids, no anti-inflammatory agents have been tested in TBI, and the negative results with these may have been flawed by their multiple side effects. Clinical trials with anti-inflammatory agents that target multiple or central and downstream pathways are warranted in adult and pediatric TBI. This review examines the mechanisms of inflammation after TBI, monitoring, and possible routes of intervention.