World Neurosurg
-
Case Reports
Percutaneous balloon compression for trigeminal neuralgia due to a pontine cavernous angioma: case report.
A cavernous malformation (CM) with trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is relatively rare. We report a patient who presented with TN caused by a CM in the cerebellopontine angle. ⋯ CMs can damage the trigeminal nerve and cause TN. PBC of the Gasserian ganglion can be undertaken safely and can relieve pain caused by TN caused by CM in the cerebellopontine angle.
-
Regulations limit residency work hours and operating time, limiting the amount of hands-on surgical training. To develop alternative hands-on training, many programs teach surgical skills in laboratories and workshops with the use of simulators. The expense of computer simulators and lack of replication of the manual skills and tactile feedback of surgery limit their usefulness. We have developed 2 replicable simulators constructed from low-cost materials, which allow residents to practice the manual skills required in key portions of minimally invasive lumbar decompression and Chiari decompression surgeries. The objective was to review the efficacy of our lumbar and Chiari decompression simulators in improving resident and medical student surgical skills. ⋯ The simple and inexpensive simulators evaluated in this study were shown to improve the speed, quality of work, and comfort level of the participants.
-
An 11-year-old girl had undergone posterior spinal fusion surgery for scoliosis. The surgery was complicated by intraoperative bleeding, and hemostasis was achieved by topically applying gelatin sponges. ⋯ Autopsy shortly after revealed that her death was associated with unintended intravascular entry of gelatin sponge fragments, resulting in an embolic event and secondary cardiopulmonary collapse.
-
No data are available on incidence, surgical approaches, complications, and survival for patients with infratentorial meningiomas in developing countries. Predictors for surgical resection, recurrence, and complications were analyzed based on the surgical outcomes of patients with infratentorial meningiomas. ⋯ The location, surgical approach, preoperative Karnofsky Performance Status, and peritumor edema were significantly associated with complications. Compared with developed countries, we had a higher complication rate (P < 0.001), lower recurrence rate (P = 0.15), and slightly lower total resection rate (P = 0.29). These findings might be attributed to the patient's late presentation to the tertiary center and poor technical resources.
-
Acquisition of neurosurgical anatomy knowledge requires the progressive construction of a 3-dimensional (3D) mental image from the study of 2-dimensional pictures. Tridimensional neuroimaging modeling and 3D pictures and videos have facilitated a better understanding of intricate brain anatomy. One of the main limitations of these methods however is that the user is unable to freely change his or her own point of view of the observed structures. The objective of this paper was to develop a 3D reconstruction method to facilitate learning and teaching of neurosurgery. ⋯ 3D VIR is a digital reconstruction method developed with the goal of facilitating the teaching and learning of neurosurgical anatomy by allowing the user to directly explore a surgical field and anatomic structures. The result is an interactive navigable 3D textured model for the analysis of the surgical approach and regional anatomy and for reconstruction of hybrid 3D scenarios.