World Neurosurg
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Review Meta Analysis
Seniority of surgeon in CSDH Recurrence: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) is increasingly common, particularly in the older and multimorbid population. Surgical proficiency in management is required in the early years of U. K. neurosurgical training with most cases performed by nonconsultant-grade surgeons. The aim of this systematic review was to examine the effect of surgeon seniority on recurrence for patients with CSDH. ⋯ The risk of bias was assessed using the National Institute of Health risk of bias toolkit. Five studies were included in the final analysis (n = 941 total patients). Individually, no study identified a significant difference in recurrence rate and postoperative complications between senior and junior neurosurgeons. On meta-analysis, junior-led evacuations had lower recurrence rates on pooled univariable analysis (12.0% vs. 17.9% [odds ratio 0.48, 95% confidence interval 0.29-0.78, I2 = 0%]) (3 studies). Seniority of surgeon was not associated with increased rates of recurrence patients undergoing CSDH surgery. Complexity of operation may be a confounding factor in observed lower recurrence rates with more junior operators.
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Review Meta Analysis
Endoscopic Treatment of Thoracolumbar Spondylodiscitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Endoscopic surgery is a minimally invasive procedure that has been shown to relieve intradiscal pressure, irrigation of inflammatory factors, and visual debridement, which are crucial for the successful treatment of spondylodiscitis. This study proposes a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of endoscopic treatment of thoracolumbar spondylodiscitis. ⋯ Endoscopic discectomy for thoracolumbar spondylodiscitis has been shown to be a safe technique with satisfactory clinical outcomes and a high causative pathogen identification rate.
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Review Meta Analysis
Clinical Characteristics as Predictors of Early and Delayed Cerebral Infarction in Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Patients: A Meta-Analysis of 4527 Cases.
Predictors of delayed cerebral infarction (DCI) and early cerebral infraction (ECI) among aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) patients remain unclear. We aimed to systematically review and synthesize the literature on predictors of ECI and DCI among aSAH patients. ⋯ Female sex, admission disease severity, presence of vasospasm and Fisher grading can predict DCI risk post-aSAH. Significant knowledge gaps exist for ECI predictors. Further large standardized cohorts are warranted to guide prognosis and interventions.
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Review Meta Analysis
Safety and Technical Efficacy of Pediatric Brainstem Biopsies: An Updated Meta-Analysis of 1000+ Children.
Brainstem tumors represent ∼10% of pediatric brain tumors, ∼80% of these are diffuse midline glioma. Given invariably poor prognosis in diffuse midline glioma, there continues to be immense variation worldwide in performing biopsy of these lesions. Several contemporary studies in recent years have provided new data to elucidate the safety profile of biopsy and an updated meta-analysis is thus indicated. ⋯ When counseling families on the merits of brainstem biopsy in children, it is reasonable to state that permanent morbidity is rare (<2%). If biopsy is performed specifically to facilitate enrollment in clinical trials requiring a molecular diagnosis, the risks of biopsy outlined here should be weighed against potential benefits of trial enrollment.
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Review Meta Analysis
Meta-Analysis of the Efficacy of Raman Spectroscopy and Machine-Learning-Based Identification of Glioma Tissue.
Intraoperative Raman spectroscopy (RS) has been identified as a potential tool for surgeons to rapidly and noninvasively differentiate between diseased and normal tissue. Since the previous meta-analysis on the subject was published in 2016, improvements in both spectroscopy equipment and machine learning models used to process spectra may have led to an increase in RS efficacy. Therefore, we decided to conduct a meta-analysis to determine the efficacy of RS when differentiating between glioma tissue and normal brain tissue. ⋯ Finally, meta-analysis for sensitivity and specificity of RS for glioma tissue showed high heterogeneity (I2 = 99.37% and 98.21%, respectively) and yielded an overall sensitivity of 95.3% (95% confidence interval: 91.0%-99.6%) and an overall specificity of 71.2% (95% confidence interval: 54.8%-87.6%). Calculation of a summary receiver operating curve yielded an overall area under the curve of 0.9265. Raman spectroscopy represents a promising tool for surgeons to quickly and accurately differentiate between healthy brain tissue and glioma tissue.