World Neurosurg
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Review
Injury of the thoracolumbar posterior ligamentous complex : a bibliometric literature review.
To conduct a bibliometric review of literature on posterior ligamentous complex (PLC) injury in thoracolumbar trauma to guide future research. ⋯ Our review provides an extensive list of the most historically significant thoracolumbar PLC injury articles, acknowledging key contributions made to the advancement of this research area.
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Meta Analysis
Epidemiological Pattern of Traumatic Brain Injury in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
Although the incidence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) has decreased since the beginning of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is still evolving, the number of TBI cases has still greatly increased in multiple countries. In the present systematic review and meta-analysis, we evaluated the epidemiological characteristics of patients with TBI before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. ⋯ Our results have indicated that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the TBI mortality rate had increased in low- to middle-income countries. The rate of assault as the cause of TBI had also increased during the pandemic.
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Extracranial-intracranial (EC-IC) bypass is a procedure in which a blood vessel outside the skull is connected to one inside the skull to improve cerebral blood flow. Certain aneurysms cannot be treated through standard clipping, and EC-IC bypass may be recommended in such cases. A vast body of literature exists on the use of EC-IC bypass as a treatment for cerebrovascular disorders. While beneficial to surgeons, these publications may not reach all the intended audience, which encourages the use of bibliometric analyses. Although a fraction of historically meaningful publications may not have been sufficiently valued through citation count, bibliometric analysis is the gold standard for assessing the impact of a publication. ⋯ We retrieved the top 50 most-cited articles on EC-IC bypass surgery and identified the landmark publications to provide a foundational understanding of the procedure as a treatment for complex disorders.
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Augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) are emerging technologies that are starting to be translated into clinical practice. Limited data are available regarding these tools in use during live surgery of the spine. Our objective was to systematically collect, analyze, and interpret the existing data regarding AR, VR, and MR use in spine surgery on living people. ⋯ The systematically collected, analyzed, and interpreted data of existing peer-reviewed full-text articles showed favorable metrics regarding surgical efficacy, pedicle screw target accuracy, radiation exposure, clinical outcomes, and disability and pain for patients with spinal pathology treated with the help of AR, VR, and/or MR.
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It is well accepted that randomized controlled trials provide the greatest quality of evidence about effectiveness and safety of new interventions. In neurosurgery, randomized controlled trials face challenges, with their use remaining relatively low compared with other clinical areas. Adaptive designs have emerged as a method for improving the efficiency and patient benefit of trials. They allow modifications to the trial design to be made as patient outcome data are collected. The benefit they provide is highly variable, predominantly governed by the time taken to observe the primary endpoint compared with the planned recruitment rate. They also face challenges in design, conduct, and reporting. ⋯ Adaptive designs may provide benefits to neurosurgery trials and should be considered for use more widely. Use of some types of adaptive design, such as multiarm multistage, may further increase the number of interventions that can be tested with limited patient and financial resources.