Neurol Neurochir Pol
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Neurol Neurochir Pol · Jan 2012
Biography Historical Article[Egas Moniz: a genius, unlucky looser or a Nobel committee error?].
Portuguese neurologist António Egas Moniz is one of the most intriguing figures in the history of medicine. While an invention of angiography in 1927 is his acknowledged merit, lobotomy, invented in 1935 became a black legend of psychiatry, although sporadically it is performed also today. There are even postulates to withdraw the Nobel Prize, which Moniz received in 1949 for inventing the lobotomy. ⋯ Aside the science, Moniz was an exceptionally colourful person, a merited politician, Portuguese minister of foreign affairs, the head of its delegation at Versailles in 1918, in 1951 he was even proposed a position of a President of Portugal. He was a versatile humanist and a writer, even a gambling expert. His person is hard for black and white evaluation, definitely deserving a re-evaluation from today's historical perspective.
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Neurol Neurochir Pol · Nov 2011
Biography Historical ArticleProfessor Anatol Dowzenko--clinical neurologist, scientist and educator.
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Neurol Neurochir Pol · Sep 2011
Early and long-term outcomes of vertebroplasty for single osteoporotic fractures.
Percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) is a minimally invasive vertebral augmentation procedure for the treatment of recent, osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures. The aim of the study was to determine the early and late outcomes of PVP for osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures. ⋯ Percutaneous vertebroplasty is a minimally invasive method of treatment for fresh osteoporotic fractures, which provides a significant and sizeable reduction of pain in the short as well as long term after surgery. Complete relief of pain was noted 12 hours after PVP in 94% of patients, and was noted in 90% two years after treatment. Despite some literature data suggesting no beneficial effect of PVP, it can be concluded that PVP is the most effective and the safest method for fresh vertebral compression fracture treatment.
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Background and purpose : Neuromodulative treatment of chronic pain syndromes is a modern mode of treatment of neuropathic and ischaemic pain. Its effectiveness is well documented in the literature. The objective of this work is to present the results of treatment of chronic pain syndromes on the basis of eight-year experience in our department. ⋯ Conclusions : A good indication for spinal cord stimulation is FBSS and angina pectoris. Motor cortex stimulation is helpful in the treatment of chronic central neuropathic pain. Further observations and a larger group of patients are necessary for a reliable assessment of the effectiveness of neuromodulative treatment of chronic pain in our clinic.
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Neurol Neurochir Pol · Jul 2011
Surgical treatment of insular tumours with tractography, functional magnetic resonance imaging, transcranial electrical stimulation and direct subcortical stimulation support.
Surgical treatment of insular tumours carries significant risks of limb paresis or speech disturbances due to their localization. The development of intraoperative neuromonitoring techniques that involve evoked motor potentials induced via both direct and transcranial cortical electrical stimulation as well as direct subcortical white matter stimulation, intraoperative application of preoperative tractography and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in conjunction with neuronavigation resulted in significant reduction of postoperative disabilities that enabled widening of indications for surgical treatment. The aim of this study was to present the authors' own experience with surgical treatment of insular gliomas. ⋯ Implementation of TES, direct subcortical white master stimulation, DTI and fMRI into the management protocol of the surgical treatment of insular tumours resulted in total and subtotal resections in 66% of cases with permanent motor disability in 6.6% of patients. Poor prognosis for independent living after surgery mainly affects patients with WHO grade III or IV.