Cervical spondylosis: ventral or dorsal surgery.

Cervical spondylosis is a result of degenerative changes of the cervical spine. Neurological symptoms of myelopathy result from the narrowing of the spinal canal, causing spinal cord compression. Surgical management of cervical stenosis requires an understanding of the interplay between multiple pathological and biomechanical factors contributing to this disease process.

Diffusion tensor eigenvector directional color imaging patterns in the evaluation of cerebral white matter tracts altered by tumor.

Purpose: To categorize the varied appearances of tumor-altered white matter (WM) tracts on diffusion tensor eigenvector directional color maps.

Materials And Methods: Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was obtained preoperatively in 13 patients with brain tumors ranging from benign to high-grade malignant, including primary and metastatic lesions, and maps of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), fractional anisotropy (FA), and major eigenvector direction were generated. Regions of interest (ROIs) were drawn within identifiable WM tracts affected by tumor, avoiding grossly cystic and necrotic regions, known fiber crossings, and gray matter.

Delayed esophageal injury without instrumentation failure: complication of anterior cervical instrumentation.

The authors describe a case of a 67-year-old man who presented with a delayed esophageal perforation 4 years after anterior cervical spine surgery for spondylotic myelopathy. Diagnosis was made with esophagoscopic visualization of the lesion and repair performed with hardware removal and esophageal closure utilizing a sternocleidomastoid muscle flap. The pertinent literature is reviewed and the therapeutic implications discussed.

Adult olfactory ensheathing cell transplantation for acute spinal cord injury.

Cellular transplantation strategies have been explored for the treatment of spinal cord injury. In particular, olfactory nerve ensheathing cell (OEC) transplantation has been reported to improve functional outcome following injury. We investigated the effect of OEC transplantation using cells derived from adult animals on the restoration of function following a contusion injury to the spinal cord.

Diffusion-tensor imaging of white matter tracts in patients with cerebral neoplasm.

Object: Preserving vital cerebral function while maximizing tumor resection is a principal goal in surgical neurooncology. Although functional magnetic resonance imaging has been useful in the localization of eloquent cerebral cortex, this method does not provide information about the white matter tracts that may be involved in invasive, intrinsic brain tumors. Recently, diffusion-tensor (DT) imaging techniques have been used to map white matter tracts in the normal brain.