Child's nervous system : ChNS : official journal of the International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery
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Approximately 90% of concussions are transient, with symptoms resolving within 10-14 days. However, a minority of patients remain symptomatic several months post-injury, a condition known as post-concussion syndrome (PCS). The treatment of these patients can be challenging. The goal of our study was to assess the utility and cost-effectiveness of neurologic imaging two or more weeks post-injury in a cohort of youth with PCS. ⋯ In this cohort of pediatric PCS patients, brain imaging in the chronic phase (defined as more than 2 weeks after concussion) was pursued in almost half the study sample, had low diagnostic yield, and had poor cost-effectiveness. Based on these results, outpatient management of pediatric patients with long-term post-concussive symptoms should rarely include repeat neuroimaging beyond the acute phase.
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Low brain oxygenation and differences in neuropsychological outcomes following severe pediatric TBI.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children. Preventing secondary injury by controlling physiological parameters (e.g. intracranial pressure [ICP], cerebral perfusion pressure [CPP] and brain tissue oxygen [PbtO2]) has a potential to improve outcome. Low PbtO2 is independently associated with poor clinical outcomes in both adults and children. However, no studies have investigated associations between low PbtO2 and neuropsychological and behavioural outcomes following severe pediatric TBI (pTBI). ⋯ Results demonstrate that low PbtO2 may be prognostic of not only mortality but also neuropsychological outcomes.
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Review Case Reports
Rasmussen encephalitis with dual pathology in a patient without seizures: case report and literature review.
Rasmussen encephalitis without seizures is rare. We report a case of Rasmussen encephalitis and cortical dysplasia without epilepsy as well as describe the imaging, pathology, and clinical course and review the literature to investigate whether this may represent a rare subset of Rasmussen encephalitis. ⋯ To the best of our knowledge, this is the third case of Rasmussen encephalitis diagnosed by both imaging and histopathology that had no clinical or electroencephalographic evidence of seizures and is the only case of Rasmussen encephalitis with cortical dysplasia without epilepsy.
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Hemispherectomy and disconnective hemispherotomy are the most effective epilepsy surgical procedures for the treatment of epilepsy due to hemispheric pathologies such as Sturge-Weber syndrome, diffuse hemispheric cortical dysplasia, and posttraumatic and postischemic focal lesions. Disconnective hemispherotomy is nowadays preferred to reduce surgical morbidity in term of early and late complications (i.e., cerebral superficial hemosiderosis). Despite the number of existing technical variants conceived to further reduce the amount of brain tissue to be removed, postoperative hydrocephalus still persists and may account for an average incidence of 15-41% according to different series and reviews. A new variant of disconnective vertical hemispherotomy we termed vertical extraventricular parasagittal hemispherotomy is described aiming to further reduce the amount of removed brain tissue and so the risk of postoperative hydrocephalus in favor of a pure hemispheric disconnection. ⋯ Vertical extraventricular parasagittal hemispherotomy may be an efficacious and less invasive technique as it consists in a pure disconnection of the hemisphere with less amount of brain tissue removed and a theoretical reduced risk of postoperative hydrocephalus.
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Despite pediatric guidelines, variability exists in the management of severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), as somewhere between 7 and 60% of children undergo intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring. Reasons for this low adherence to TBI management guidelines remain unclear. The objective of this study was to evaluate the current practices at CHU Sainte-Justine with regards to ICP monitoring in severe TBI and explore the reasons why ICP monitoring is not undertaken. ⋯ Our study confirms that many children with severe TBI do not undergo ICP monitoring, mainly due to rapid improvement or moribund status. A subgroup of patients, with reassuring cerebral CT scan, was not monitored. Further research is necessary to assess if imaging should be considered in ICP indication, as in adult guidelines.