Acta neurochirurgica. Supplement
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Acta Neurochir. Suppl. · Jan 2011
Case ReportsEndoscopic surgical treatment for pituitary apoplexy in three elderly patients over the age of 80.
As the population continues to live longer, the diagnosis of pituitary adenoma-induced apoplexy becomes more common in the elderly. The standard treatment options for pituitary apoplexy are debatable. Although there is little information regarding the treatment of pituitary apoplexy in elderly patients, the optimal treatment needs to be determined for this age group. The current study examined the surgical treatment of pituitary apoplexy in three patients over the age of 80. ⋯ Endoscopic transsphenoidal surgery has the advantage of visualization of the structures surrounding the pituitary gland. Moreover, the complication rate is relatively low because stress on the pituitary gland can be reduced by using this procedure. Even in patients over 80 years of age during the subacute phase, endoscopic surgical management is a good treatment candidate for pituitary apoplexy with mass lesion extension into the cavernous sinus.
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Acta Neurochir. Suppl. · Jan 2011
Treatment of discogenic low back pain with Intradiscal Electrothermal Therapy (IDET): 24 months follow-up in 50 consecutive patients.
Degeneration of the intervertebral disc can be the source of severe low back pain. Intradiscal electrothermal therapy (IDET) is a minimally invasive treatment option for patients with symptomatic internal disc disruption nonresponsive to conservative medical care. ⋯ The findings of this study suggest that durable clinical improvements can be realized after IDET in highly selected patients with mild disc degeneration, confirmatory imaging evidence of annular disruption and concordant pain provocation by low pressure discography.
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Acta Neurochir. Suppl. · Jan 2011
Neuromonitoring in intensive care: a new brain tissue probe for combined monitoring of intracranial pressure (ICP) cerebral blood flow (CBF) and oxygenation.
the benefits of monitoring cerebral blood flow (CBF) in stroke patients are apparent. New techniques combining near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and indocyanine green (ICG) dye dilution to estimate cerebral hemodynamics are available. However, with transcutaneous NIRS and optodes applied over the skin, the signal is contaminated by extracerebral tissues. The objective is to develop a new brain tissue probe for combined monitoring of intracranial pressure (ICP), CBF and cerebral blood volume (CBV). ⋯ NIR spectroscopy allows the synchronous determination of multiple parameters with one single device. By measurements in parallel with the NeMo Probe and NIRS optodes placed over the skin, new algorithms can be developed to subtract the extracerebral contamination from the NIRS signal.
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Acta Neurochir. Suppl. · Jan 2011
Improving patient safety in the intra-operative MRI suite using an on-duty safety nurse, safety manual and checklist.
This paper describes the use of an on-duty safety nurse, a surgical safety manual and a checklist as an essential precursor to evaluating how these approaches affect surgical quality, communication in surgery crews and contribute to the safety of surgical care in the intra-operative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) suite.
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Acta Neurochir. Suppl. · Jan 2011
Vasospasm after subarachnoid hemorrhage: a 3D rotational angiography study.
the purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical value of 3D rotational angiography (3DRA) for evaluation of cerebral vasospasm in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) by comparison with 2D digital subtraction angiography (DSA). ⋯ the pseudo-spasm phenomenon was frequently observed on 3DRA volume rendering images. 3DRA was less useful than 2D DSA for evaluation of vasospasm after SAH.