Pediatric intracranial tuberculoma: illustrative case.

Background: Tuberculosis is an airborne disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Intracranial tuberculoma is a rare complication of extrapulmonary tuberculosis due to hematogenous spread to subpial and subependymal regions. Intracranial tuberculoma can occur with or without meningitis.

Use of Antibacterial Envelopes for Prevention of Infection in Neuromodulation Implantable Pulse Generators.

Background: Neuromodulation unit placement carries a historic infection rate as high as 12%. Treatment of such requires surgical removal and a long course of systemic antibiotics. Antibiotic-impregnated envelopes have been effective in preventing infection in implantable cardiac devices.

Migration of a swallowed needle into the cervical spine: case report.

Foreign body migration into the cervical spine is rare. Only 3 prior reports of needle migration into the cervical spine exist in the literature. Here, the authors report one such case, where the migrated needle narrowly avoided the thecal sac and vertebral artery.

Forced normalization after turning off vagus nerve stimulation in Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.

Forced normalization is the development of psychiatric symptoms in a patient experiencing remission of seizures. We present a case of Lennox Gastaut syndrome in which forced normalization developed after vagus nerve stimulation was stopped. The patient had drug resistant epilepsy and failed anti-seizure drugs, vagus nerve stimulation, and a partial callosotomy.

Cerebellar mutism after posterior fossa tumor resection in children: a multicenter international retrospective study to determine possible modifiable factors.

Purpose: A preliminary survey of pediatric neurosurgeons working at different centers around the world suggested differences in clinical practice resulting in variation in the risk of pediatric cerebellar mutism (CM) and cerebellar mutism syndrome (CMS) after posterior fossa (PF) tumor resection. The purposes of this study were (1) to determine the incidence and severity of CM and CMS after midline PF tumor resection in children treated at these centers and (2) to identify potentially modifiable factors related to surgical management (rather than tumor biology) that correlate with the incidence of CM/CMS.

Methods: Attending pediatric neurosurgeons at British Columbia's Children's Hospital (BCCH) and neurosurgeons who completed a pediatric neurosurgery fellowship at BCCH were invited to provide data from the center where they currently practiced.

Efficacy of Vagal Nerve Stimulation for Drug-Resistant Epilepsy: Is it the Stimulation or Medication?

Background: Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) therapy has been widely recognized as an alternative for the treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy, although modification of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) during VNS treatment could explain the improvement in patients.

Methods: We retrospectively assessed the efficacy of VNS in 30 adult patients with epilepsy treated with >6 months of follow-up. The criteria for implantation were the following: (1) not a candidate for resective epilepsy surgery, (2) drug-resistant epilepsy, (3) impairment of quality of life, (4) no other option of treatment, and (5) patients with idiopathic generalized epilepsy who fail to be controlled with appropriate AEDs.

Pediatric thalamic tumors in the MRI era: a Canadian perspective.

Background: Thalamic gliomas are rare. The natural history is unpredictable, and the optimal management of these tumors in children is poorly defined. The aim was to identify outcomes, prognostic factors, and response to various modalities of treatment in a relatively large population of pediatric thalamic tumors from many centers within a fairly homogeneous health care system.

Biomolecular diagnosis of human glioblastoma multiforme using Synchrotron mid-infrared spectromicroscopy.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is one of the most malignant human tumors, with a uniformly poor outcome. One obstacle in curing malignant brain tumors is the limitation of conventional light microscopy in detecting microscopic residual tumor in biopsy samples from the perimeter of the surgically resected tumor. We further refined the identification of GBM tumor tissue at the sub-cellular level, utilising the technique of Synchrotron, sourced mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectromicroscopy.

Thalamic stimulation in multiple sclerosis: evidence for a 'demyelinative thalamotomy'.

The mechanism of action of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in the alleviation of tremor in multiple sclerosis (MS) and other neurological disorders is unknown. Moreover, whether the trauma accompanying this surgery is responsible for the induction of new MS plaques is controversial. Here we report the first description of the post-mortem imaging and pathologic findings in the brain of a MS patient who underwent thalamic DBS for the treatment of MS-induced tremor.

Metastatic craniopharyngioma: case report and literature review.

Background: Distant spread of craniopharyngioma is a rare but important complication. Most cases are a result of spread along the surgical path. We describe a rare case of metastatic leptomeningeal craniopharyngioma as a result of dissemination along CSF pathways in a child.

Resolution of syringomyelia and Chiari malformation after growth hormone therapy.

Introduction: The association between hypopituitarism, Chiari I malformation, and syringomyelia has been recently recognized. Most of the reported patients suffered perinatal injury or asphyxia.

Materials And Methods: We present the case of a premature child without identifiable perinatal injury, who was recognized to have growth hormone (GH) deficiency, Chiari I malformation, and syringohydromyelia.

Acquired encephalocele attributable to tuberculous osteitis: case report.

Objective: There are many forms of calvarial tuberculosis. In this case report, extensive calvarial tuberculosis caused a large cranial defect and occlusion of the sigmoid sinus in a 10-year-old child. This resulted in a transient increase of the intracranial pressure and formation of an acquired encephalocele.

Brown-Sèquard syndrome produced by C3-C4 cervical disc herniation: a case report and review of the literature.

Study Design: The article presents a case in which Brown-Sèquard syndrome resulted from a painless C3-C4 disc herniation.

Objective: To raise spinal surgeons' awareness of this unusual clinical problem.

Summary Of Background Data: Brown-Sèquard syndrome involves ipsilateral loss of motor function combined with contralateral loss of pain and temperature sensation.

Depressed skull fracture and epidural hematoma from head fixation with pins for craniotomy in children.

Objective: A head fixation device with pins is commonly used for immobilization of the patient's head during craniotomy. The safety of head fixation devices in children has been discussed rarely in the literature. The purpose of this report is to review our experience with complications of head fixation with pins in children undergoing craniotomies and to review the literature on this subject.

Multiple intracranial tumors in Philadelphia chromosome positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia: successful treatment following aggressive supportive care, early cranial radiation, high dose chemotherapy and imatinib.

We report the first case of multiple intracranial tumors ("chloromas") at diagnosis of Philadelphia chromosome positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The patient presented comatose with signs of cerebral herniation. Initial management of raised intracranial pressure and hyperleukocytosis followed by emergent whole brain radiation therapy reversed the life-threatening neurological signs.

Isolated C3-C4 disc herniations present as a painless myelopathy.

Background Context: Cervical disc herniations at the C3-C4 level are distinctly uncommon. The authors present the first case series of isolated C3-C4 disc herniations presenting with myelopathy.

Purpose: To elucidate a rare presentation of the uncommon C3-C4 disc herniation.