British journal of neurosurgery
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Acute severe headache is a common medical presentation, and a common area of diagnostic uncertainty. Subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) is the cause in a minority of patients and has a high rate of morbidity and mortality. Therefore, its conclusive diagnosis with computed tomography (CT) or lumbar puncture (LP) is paramount. With advancement in imaging technology, emerging evidence now suggests that LP is no longer required for a subset of patients as CT has 100% sensitivity in detecting SAH, when performed under specific conditions. ⋯ LP has a high diagnostic yield, eliminating the need for neurosurgical opinion or investigation in almost 90% of cases. The test is both cost and time efficient and subjects only a small number of patients to the radiation and contrast risks of angiography.
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We present a case of recurrent vago-glossopharyngeal neuralgia after previous surgery, treated successfully with microvascular decompression using intra-operative neurophysiology monitoring.
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Many neurosurgical procedures are now performed with the patient aware in order to allow interactions between the patient and healthcare professionals. These procedures include awake brain surgery and spinal cord stimulation (SCS), lead placement for treatment of refractory chronic back and leg pain. Neurosurgical procedures under local anaesthesia require optimal intraoperative cooperation of the patient and all personnel involved in surgery. In addition to accommodating this extra source of intraoperative information all other necessary sources of data relevant to the procedure must be presented. The concept of an operating room dedicated to neurosurgical procedures performed aware and accommodating these concepts is presented, and some evidence for improvements in outcome presented, deriving from a series of patients implanted with spinal cord stimulators before and after the operating theatre was brought into service. ⋯ The concept of such an operating room is a step in improving the outcome by improving the presentation of all types of information to the operating room staff most notably in the example of aware procedures.
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To examine tumour control, via volume changes, and the complications of linear accelerator (LINAC)-based stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) treatment of vestibular schwannomas (VSs) on medium-term follow-up. ⋯ At medium term, the vast majority of VSs treated with LINAC-based SRS exhibit tumour shrinkage. The slightly higher rate of facial nerve palsy compared with Gamma Knife surgery (GKS) results may be related to the learning curve. Other complications were similar to reported GKS results for VSs of comparable sizes.
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Our aim is to measure and compare the academic and research output of neurosurgical departments across the U.K. and Ireland. ⋯ The h-index is useful for ranking neurosurgical departments according to their historical or recent publication output. It is particularly useful when restricted to the last 10-year period. We have been able to quantify and rank the academic output of neurosurgical units across the U.K. and Ireland, except where mentioned. This may be of interest to the clinician who wishes to pursue a career in academia or research.