World Neurosurg
-
Medical students are important team members and future healthcare providers in neurosurgery or other medical fields. We performed a systematic review evaluating studies assessing medical student guidance, mentorship, and career development in neurosurgery. The study aimed to identify the best practices and acknowledge gaps requiring improvement. ⋯ These studies highlight the current endeavors to encourage medical student careers. However, ample gaps and missed opportunities were also identified. Further work at both institutional and national levels is needed to improve the current environment.
-
Mesoamerica is culturally rich in diverse aspects, such as nature, sociology, and archeology. Several neurosurgical techniques were described during the Pre-Hispanic era. In Mexico, various cultures, such as the Aztec, Mixtec, Zapotec, Mayan, Tlatilcan, and Tarahumara, developed surgical procedures using different tools to perform cranial and probably brain interventions. ⋯ More than 40 skulls have been rescued and studied in this region. In addition to written medical sources, archeological vestiges allow a more profound comprehension of Pre-Columbian brain surgery. The purpose of this study is to present the existing evidence of cranial surgery in Pre-Hispanic Mexican civilizations and their worldwide counterparts, procedures that have contributed to the global neurosurgical armamentarium, and have significantly impacted the medical practice's evolution.
-
Review Case Reports
Pre-incisional Localization: An Overlooked Contribution by Ralph Bingham Cloward.
Preincisional localization has become ubiquitous within spinal neurosurgery and has served as the foundation for modern minimally invasive surgery techniques. Dr. ⋯ In his landmark 1958 article on what is now known as anterior cervical diskectomy and fusion, Cloward commented on a case of wrong-level surgery that motivated him to implement a standardized technique for spinal level localization with the patient under anesthesia in the operating room before skin incision. We trace the origins of the use of preincisional radiographs to localize the pathologic level at the time of diskectomy and highlight this original contribution by Cloward.
-
Awake craniotomy is a unique method to prevent motor deficits during the resection of lesions located in or close to functional areas. We sought to study the outcomes of pediatric craniotomy on published studies. ⋯ This systematic review summarized that awake brain surgery can prevent significant motor and language deficits postoperatively in children after tumor resection as it is considered a feasible and safe procedure.
-
Review Case Reports
Second Cancer affecting the Central Nervous System: Systematic Literature Review Exploring the Link between Malignant Melanoma and Glioblastoma.
Glioblastoma (GBM) is a malignant primary brain cancer, among the most devastating and lethal diseases of the central nervous system. Similarly, malignant melanoma (MM) is responsible for most skin cancer-related deaths. A link between those 2 aggressive cancers has not yet been established. We present here a systematic review of the literature and an exemplificative case. ⋯ The evidence reported in the literature, as well as our surgical vignette, support a likely link between the pathogenesis of GBM and MM.