Commissioning and operation of the first brazilian synchrotron light source.

The synchrotron light source designed and constructed at the LNLS is composed of a 1.37 GeV electron storage ring and a 120 MeV linac for low-energy injection. The storage ring has been commissioned and has already reached the designed electron-beam energy, current and emittance.

[Basilar impression and malformation of Arnold-Chiari. Postoperative complications in 126 cases (author's transl)].

Within a period of ten years we operated on 126 cases of basilar impression and/or Arnold-Chiari malformation. Two surgical techniques were employed for decompression of the posterior fossa. In the group I (64 cases) the operation consisted of craniectomy and the dura mater was left open and was fixed to the lateral musculature.

[Postoperative complications in 139 cases of basilar impression and/or Arnold-Chiari deformity].

The many kinds of complication that have been observed following operations of basilar impression and/or malformation of Arnold-Chiari are analysed. Two surgical techniques were adopted in the treatment of the patients. In the first 64 cases, the operation consisted in the craniectomy of the posterior fossa and high cervical laminectomy, while the dura-mater remained opened and saturated to the lateral musculature.

[A rare orbito-cerebral penetrating knife-wound (author's transl)].

The authors describe a case of open brain injury caused by a 30 cm long knife, which penetrated the right orbit, the point of which reached as far as the right posterior fossa. The patient survived with minor neurologic deficit in relation to the extensive lesion.

[The basilar impression and the Arnold-Chiari malformation. Techno-surgical considerations apropos of 13 cases].

The surgical technic for decompression of the posterior fossa in cases of basilar impression and malformation of Arnold-Chiari mainly based in (1) endotracheal intubation without any flexion of the head, (2) position of the head without anterior flexion during the surgery, (3) plastic of the posterior fossa with dura-mater of cadaver conserved in glicerina, was emploied in 13 patients. The plastic was made to create space at the craniocervical joint in order to avoid cerebrospinal fluid fistula and to restore the integrity of the dura. Infection was not observed.