Pediatric neurosurgery
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Pediatric neurosurgery · Jan 2006
Risk of ventriculoperitoneal shunt infections due to gastrostomy feeding tube insertion in pediatric patients with brain tumors.
To determine the risk of ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt infections after percutaneous retrograde gastrostomy feeding tube (GT) placement in children with brain tumors. ⋯ Placement of percutaneous retrograde GTs, in the acute phase, in children with brain tumors and VP shunts may increase the risk of ascending meningitis especially if there are early GT-related complications.
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Pediatric neurosurgery · Jan 2006
Case ReportsSpontaneous acute subdural hematoma following contralateral calcified chronic subdural hematoma surgery: an unusual case.
Calcified chronic subdural hematoma (CCSDH) is a well-known disease to many neurosurgeons but only few cases have been reported regarding its surgical complications. We report a spontaneous acute subdural hematoma following contralateral CCSDH surgery in a 16-year-old boy and discuss its possible mechanisms. The first few days of the postoperative period, especially for the cerebral atrophy cases, should be monitored carefully and a control computerized tomography scan should be performed early for possible complications. To our knowledge, spontaneous acute subdural hematoma following contralateral CCSDH surgery has not been reported previously.
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Pediatric neurosurgery · Jan 2006
Low incidence of subdural grid-related complications in prolonged pediatric EEG monitoring.
Invasive EEG monitoring is one of the best tools available for localization of epileptogenic foci in the brain. However, published data in mixed series of adult and pediatric patients show high incidence of epidural bacterial contamination, cerebrospinal fluid leakage, and skin infection after subdural electrode implantation. We sought to determine whether the complication rate from prolonged subdural electrode implantation would be lower in a purely pediatric series. ⋯ There was no percutaneous cerebrospinal fluid leakage noted and no operation was aborted due to bleeding caused by grid placement. Our data suggest that subdural grid implantation in children is remarkably safe even for prolonged implantation, though infectious risk is significantly higher in reoperation (p = 0.019). This observation may contribute to lowering the threshold for two-stage invasive monitoring approaches in children with epilepsy.