World Neurosurg
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Review
Spinal tractography as a potential prognostic tool in spinal cord injury. A systematic review.
Magnetic resonance imaging is considered the most accurate examination to study the spinal cord. Nevertheless, the use of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) can demonstrate additional key details about spinal cord lesions. We examined the literature to investigate and discuss the role, limitations, and possible evolution as a prognostic tool of DTI in spinal cord injury (SCI). ⋯ The main spinal cord tract involved and studied in SCIs was the cervical tract (57.5%), followed by conus terminalis (15.4%) and dorsal tract (13.7%). In all studies based on American Spine Injury Association impairment scale score for neurological assessment, a correlation was found between FA values and American Spine Injury Association impairment scale: patients with complete SCI had a statistically significative lower FA value at the injured site compared with patients with incomplete SCI. Published clinical studies showed promising results for the utility of DTI parameters as noninvasive biomarkers in SCI grade evaluation, remaining an evolving area of further investigation.
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Both transarticular screw fixation (TAS) and segmental screw-rod fixation (SF) have been widely performed for C1-2 fusion; however, just only small clinical studies and a few meta-analyses comparing the 2 surgical techniques for C1-2 posterior fusion have been reported. ⋯ SF showed a greater fusion rate and lower risk of vertebral artery injury than TAS did, but TAS showed less blood loss and lower operation times than SF.
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Supraorbital keyhole craniotomy is a minimally invasive approach used to access the parasellar region with advantages of decreased cortical exposure, simple closure, and decreased risk of postoperative cerebrospinal fluid leak. The incision of this approach, however, has raised cosmetic concerns, especially for pediatric patients. The aim of this study is to assess postoperative complications and cosmeses of the supraorbital keyhole approach for resection of intracranial lesions in pediatric patients. ⋯ This study suggests that supraorbital keyhole craniotomy is a safe and effective approach to access the parasellar region in pediatric patients with excellent cosmetic outcomes reported across multiple institutions.
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There are 466 cases of absent unilateral (398) and bilateral (68) internal carotid artery (ICA) published in online books, abstracts, and original articles from 2020 to 2021. Of the 398 cases of absent unilateral ICA, 95 were associated with aneurysms. The analysis of these cases includes age, nationality and gender, location of aneurysm(s), description, and scheme of carotid-vertebrobasilar angioarchitecture mode in the brain base, as well as hypothesis on the embryonic background of accompanying vascular variations and abnormalities. ⋯ The association between the posterior communicating middle cerebral anastomosis and intercavernous (trans-sellar or intercarotid) channel with the absence of both anterior cerebral and anterior communicating arteries is common. More than half of the cases with aneurysms are located at the anterior segment vessels of the cerebral arterial circle. This review is based on the description and explanation of embryology and morphology of absent unilateral ICA with aneurysms, which would be a significant contribution to published literature on this topic, especially due to the fact that nothing similar has been published since 1957.
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Nonoperative management of odontoid fractures can result in solid fusion, unstable nonunion, and fibrous nonunion. Odontoid fractures with fibrous nonunion will not demonstrate dynamic instability on imaging studies. However, the safety of accepting this outcome has been debated. We have provided, to the best of our knowledge, the first systematic review of the existing literature to explore the safety of allowing fibrous nonunion as an acceptable outcome for odontoid fractures. ⋯ The evidence we found supports that it is safe to forgo surgery for carefully selected patients with nonunited odontoid fractures when near-anatomic alignment is present, dynamic instability is lacking on imaging studies, the neurologic examination findings are normal, and the risk of neck injury is low. Further study is needed to define the full natural history of fibrous nonunion of odontoid fractures.