Acta neurochirurgica. Supplement
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Over the past ten years, an average of 135 residents have entered neurosurgical training in the United States each year. These neurosurgeons-to-be come from about 250 applicants who annually enter the national matching program for neurosurgery. After completing training, they join a pool of practicing neurosurgeons that includes about 3,260 board certified neurosurgeons and an additional 390 practicing neurosurgeons who are still in the certification process. ⋯ We do need to restrict the number of trainees to that number we can train properly. The quality of our neurosurgeons needs to be maintained. Beyond that, the market place, however imperfect, is a better long-term regulator of numbers than any governmental or privately-based committee.
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Acta Neurochir. Suppl. · Jan 1997
Treatment of deafferentation pain by chronic stimulation of the motor cortex: report of a series of 20 cases.
Twenty patients with deafferentation pain were treated by chronic stimulation of the motor cortex. The central fissure was localized using stereotactic MRI and the motor cortex was mapped using intra-operative somatosensory evoked potentials. Seven patients with trigeminal neuropathic pain experienced definite pain relief varying between 40 and 100%. ⋯ One patient developed a small extradural haematoma which resolved spontaneously. None of the patients developed seizure activity. This study confirms the potential value of motor cortex stimulation in the treatment of certain forms of intractable pain, especially in cases with trigeminal neuropathic pain.
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Acta Neurochir. Suppl. · Jan 1997
Morphologic analysis of the cerebral microcirculation after thermal injury and the response to fluid resuscitation.
Using the pial window model, we have previously demonstrated that there is a disruption of the blood brain barrier with distal thermal injury [1-3]. Our laboratory has shown that treatment with Lactated Ringer's Solution did not improve labeled albumin leakage. ⋯ The results show that there was significant progressive arterial dilatation over six hours in the thermally injured animals treated with HHS. There was also a significant increase in leukocyte number if the animals were thermally injured and had no resuscitation fluid or if the animals were thermally injured and underwent resuscitation fluid with Lactated Ringer's compared to either the control group or the group that was treated with HHS after thermal injury.
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Acta Neurochir. Suppl. · Jan 1997
Cerebral vascular response to hypertonic fluid resuscitation in thermal injury.
The purpose of this project was to study the effects of various resuscitation fluid protocols in a systemically thermally injured rat sustaining 70% body surface area third degree burn using the pial window model in rats. The results show that there was a significant albumin leak in the cerebral vessels in both the experimental group which underwent no resuscitation fluid, as well as the experimental group that was resuscitated with Lactated Ringer's solution using the Parkland formula. When this was compared to the control group, as well as to the experimental group which received hypertonic hyperosmotic saline (HMS) boluses every hour, there was little if any leakage seen.
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Acta Neurochir. Suppl. · Jan 1997
Characterisation of brain edema following "controlled cortical impact injury" in rats.
Significance, origin and nature of posttraumatic brain edema are still being debated. Recently, a "controlled cortical impact injury" (CCII) was introduced to model traumatic brain injury. Purpose of this study was to investigate the development and nature of brain edema following CCII. ⋯ A significantly decreased ADC (apparent diffusion coefficient) indicates the cytotoxic (ischemic) component of edema in this model. In conclusion, CCII produces significant posttraumatic brain swelling and edema which is both, of vasogenic and cytotoxic nature. Thus, the CCII models the human cortical contusion more appropriately and opens new avenues for therapeutical studies focussing on cortical contusions.