Journal of clinical neuroscience : official journal of the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia
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We present a 45-year-old man with tussive headache and blurred vision found to have obstructive hydrocephalus from a neurocysticercal cyst at the cervicomedullary junction who underwent surgical removal of the cyst. We performed a suboccipital craniectomy to remove the cervicomedullary cyst en bloc. Cyst removal successfully treated the patient's headaches without necessitating permanent cerebrospinal fluid diversion. ⋯ Intraventricular cysts or arachnoiditis usually cause hydrocephalus in neurocysticercosis but craniocervical junction cysts causing obstructive hydrocephalus are rare. Neurocysticercosis at the craniocervical junction may cause Chiari-like symptoms. In the absence of arachnoiditis and leptomeningeal enhancement, surgical removal of the intact cyst can lead to favorable outcomes.
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Hypertonic saline infusion in traumatic brain injury increases the incidence of pulmonary infection.
We aimed to investigate the incidence of electrolyte abnormalities, acute kidney injury (AKI), deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and infections in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) treated with hypertonic saline (HTS) as osmolar therapy. We retrospectively studied 205 TBI patients, 96 with HTS and 109 without, admitted to the surgical/trauma intensive care unit between 2006 and 2012. Hemodynamics, electrolytes, length of stay (LOS), acute physiological assessment and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II), injury severity scores (ISS) and mortality were tabulated. ⋯ HTS did not result in increased blood pressure, DVT, AKI or neurological benefits. HTS significantly increased the odds for all infections, most specifically pulmonary infections, in patients with GCS<8. Due to these findings, HTS in TBI should be administered with caution regardless of acuity.
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We evaluated the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) database for increased hospital acquired condition (HAC) rate as a function of weekend admission in patients receiving thoracolumbar fusions. In 2008, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) compiled a list of HAC for a new payment policy for preventable adverse events without reimbursement of resulting hospital costs. In this, the thoracolumbar patients represented a population with significant increased rates of HAC and, to our knowledge, no prior studies have evaluated the effect of weekend admission on HAC rate. ⋯ HAC occurrence and weekend admission were also associated with prolonged LOS (p<0.05). We found that weekend admission is associated with increased HAC rate. Though our conclusions must be tempered by limitations of the coded national database, further study is warranted to confirm this disparity and evaluate potential for improvement.
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Comparative Study
General versus epidural anesthesia for lumbar microdiscectomy.
This study was a retrospective analysis of 850 lumbar microdiscectomy (LMD) under epidural anesthesia (EA; n=573) or general anesthesia (GA; n=277) performed by the same surgeon and paid by invoice to the Social Security Institution of the Turkish Republic between April 2003 and May 2013. Although GA is the most frequently used method of anesthesia during LMD, the choice of regional anesthetia (epidural, spinal or a combination of these) differs between surgeons and anesthetists. Studies have reported that EA in surgery for lumbar disc herniation may be more reliable than GA, as it enables the surgeon to communicate with the patient during surgery, but few studies have compared the costs of these two anesthetic methods in LMD. ⋯ There was no difference in the duration of surgery (p>0.05). The anesthetic method used during LMD affected the complication rate, cost and efficiency of operating room use. We suggest that EA is an anesthetic method that can contribute to health care cost savings and enable LMD to be completed with less nerve root manipulation and more comfort, efficacy, reliability and cost efficiency without affecting the success rate of the surgical procedure.
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The objective of this study was to report the frequency and clinical characteristics of early rebleeding in subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) patients who underwent intensive blood pressure (BP) management. Patients with aneurysmal SAH frequently present to the emergency department (ED) with elevated BP. Intensive BP management has been recommended to lower the risk of early rebleeding. ⋯ However, early rebleeding is not eradicated even with strict BP control as factors other than elevated BP are involved. ED SBP within the target range (SBP⩽140 mmHg) does not negate the risk of early rebleeding. Other treatment options that reduce the risk should also be explored.