World Neurosurg
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With the recent paradigm shift in neurosurgical publications, open access (OA) publishing is burgeoning along with traditional publishing methods. We aimed to explore costs of publication across 53 journals. ⋯ The lack of easily accessible information about neurosurgical publications, such as submission costs or OA charges, creates an unnecessary hurdle and should be remedied. Publishing in neurosurgery should be a positive learning experience, and cost should not be a limiting factor.
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Predicting patient needs for extended care after spinal fusion remains challenging. The Risk Assessment and Prediction Tool (RAPT) was externally developed to predict discharge disposition after nonspine orthopedic surgery but remains scarcely used in neurosurgery. The present study is the first to use coarsened exact matching-which incorporated patient characteristics known to independently affect outcomes-for 1:1 matching across a large population of single-level, posterior lumbar fusions, to isolate the predictive value of preoperative RAPT score on postoperative discharge disposition. ⋯ The RAPT score, captured in preoperative evaluations, can be highly predictive of discharge disposition following single-level, posterior lumbar fusion.
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The Comprehensive Aneurysm Management (CAM) study is a pragmatic trial designed to manage unruptured intracranial aneurysm (UIA) patients within a care research framework. ⋯ CAM was successfully integrated into routine practice. Meaningful conclusions can be obtained if multiple centers actively participate in the trial.
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External ventricular drainage (EVD) is required to resolve acute hydrocephalus associated with intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH). The correlation of scoring systems of IVH with indications for EVD for acute hydrocephalus related to IVH is currently unknown. ⋯ The LeRoux score is better for identifying patients with IVH who are more likely to have EVD.
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Interest groups for medical students (MSs) facilitate interest and engagement in neurosurgery. Students without interest groups are at a disadvantage as a result of greater barriers to exposure. We aimed to compare the usefulness of a virtual neurosurgery training camp for MSs with and without interest groups. ⋯ Distance learning increases both general and subspecialty-specific interest in neurosurgery among MSs without neurosurgery interest groups to a greater degree than among those with interest groups. Future initiatives seeking to benefit students without home programs should address the specific concerns of these students.