World Neurosurg
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Multiple reports have attributed a prognostic value to routine blood tests results for patients with glioblastoma. However, these studies have reported conflicting results and have often had small sample sizes. We sought to validate the prognostic value of the described tests in an independent glioblastoma patient population. ⋯ In the present study, hemoglobin, white blood cell, monocyte, neutrophil, leukocyte, and platelet counts, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, activated partial thromboplastin time, prothrombin time, and lactate dehydrogenase levels did not independently predict for overall survival in patients with glioblastoma.
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Preoperative endovascular embolization of hypervascular metastatic spine tumors can reduce intraoperative blood loss. One frequent objection to embolizing these tumors is the concern for associated arteries feeding the spinal cord, such as the artery of Adamkiewicz. This study aimed to elucidate a relationship between spinal levels affected by hypervascular spine metastases and associated radiculomedullary arteries (RMAs). ⋯ In this study, no association was found between spinal levels affected by hypervascular metastatic spine tumors and RMAs feeding the spinal cord by diagnostic spinal angiography. This suggests that these tumors have little intrinsic affinity for spinal levels with an RMA. However, given that tumor embolization frequently requires accessing multiple levels, the risk of encountering an RMA during embolization remains significant.
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Postoperative Pulmonary Complications Following Brain Tumor Resection: A National Database Analysis.
There is sparse literature that investigates the adverse effects of postoperative pulmonary complication (PPCs) specifically in postcraniotomy tumor patients. In this study, we describe the rate of PPCs, determine predictive factors, and delineate associations with adverse outcomes. ⋯ There are several predictive factors of PPCs in patients that undergo surgical resection of brain tumors, and PPC development is associated with numerous adverse outcomes. It is critically important to understand and, if possible, mitigate controllable circumstances that may reduce morbidity and mortality associated with PPCs.
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To develop a method to distinguish atypical meningiomas (AMs) with malignant progression (MP) from primary AMs without a clinical history. ⋯ Low Cx43 expression and irregular tumor shape were independent predictors of the presence of MP. The relevant logistic regression model was found to be effective in distinguishing MP-AMs from primary AMs.
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The American College of Surgeons-National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Surgical Risk Calculator is a tool developed to use 21 individual patient characteristics to make predictions for occurrence of 13 general and 2 procedure-specific outcomes. The goal of this study was to evaluate the performance of the Surgical Risk Calculator in predicting outcomes in patients receiving posterior lumbar fusion. ⋯ This study assesses the performance of the risk calculator for a homogenous population of patients undergoing a single-level PLF. Although the calculator did not fare well in predicting most outcomes, results need to be interpreted in the context of the low incidence rate of such outcomes.