[X-ray contrast filler for balloons at endovascular surgery (20 years of experience with original balloon filler)].

In 1984, the authors designed a X-ray contrast balloon filler polyacryl amide gel (PAAG) that has a polymerization rate of 1-3 min. PAAG has been used to fill over 5000 balloons for nearly 20 years. With this filler, recurrent anastomoses reduced by 1.

[Main anastomoses of external carotid artery branches with the beds of the internal carotid and the vertebral artery and a role of pharmacological tests in the determination of their functional value at tumor embolization].

In 21 patients with meningovascular tumors (meningiomas, angiofibromas, etc.), 53 vessels were tested during preoperative embolization of extracranial tumors. Two groups of drugs were superselectively intraarterially administered in turn--first barbiturates, such as thiopental sodium, 15-20 mg in 2 ml of sodium chloride solution, to detect anastomoses with cerebral vessels, then local anesthetics (lidocaine, 10-20 mg in 2 ml of sodium chloride solution, to reveal the vessels feeding cranial nerves.

A tribute to Dr. Fedor A. Serbinenko, founder of endovascular neurosurgery.

From humble beginnings in the former Soviet Union, Fedor A. Serbinenko, M.D.

[Internal hydrocephalus and basal liquorrhea (radionuclide data)].

The paper shows the value of radionuclide cysternomyelography in the diagnosis of internal hydrocephalus concurrent with basal liquorrhea. The authors examined 1522 patients of whom 105 were found to have the pathology, this yielded radionuclide differential diagnostic criteria for this nosological entity. They proposed new technological conditions for enhancing its diagnostic value.

[Computed tomography in the diagnosis of intervertebral disk hernias].

Computed tomography (CT) was conducted in 75 patients with discogenic radiculitis. In 15 patients the study was carried out without intensified contrasting of the spinal cord meningeal spaces (native CT), in 60 with contrasting of the meningeal spaces with air (42 patients) or Omnipaque (18 patients). The CT was analysed at the level of the bony and articular segments of the spinal canal.