Neurological and functional outcomes of subdural hematoma evacuation in patients over 70 years of age.

Background: Subdural hematoma (SDH) is a common disease entity treated by neurosurgical intervention. Although the incidence increases in the elderly population, there is a paucity of studies examining their surgical outcomes.

Objectives: To determine the neurological and functional outcomes of patients over 70 years of age undergoing surgical decompression for subdural hematoma.

Intraspinal stem cell transplantation in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a phase I safety trial, technical note, and lumbar safety outcomes.

Background: No United States-based clinical trials have attempted delivery of biological therapies directly to the spinal cord for treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) because of the lack of a meaningful US Food and Drug Administration-authorized cell candidate and a validated delivery approach.

Objective: To assess safety of delivery of a neural stem cell-based treatment into the upper lumbar segments of the ALS spinal cord in the first US Food and Drug Administration-authorized phase I trial.

Methods: Each microinjection series comprised 5 injections (10 μL/injection) separated by 4 mm.

Current dosing paradigm for stereotactic radiosurgery alone after surgical resection of brain metastases needs to be optimized for improved local control.

Purpose: To describe the use of radiosurgery (RS) alone to the resection cavity after resection of brain metastases as an alternative to adjuvant whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT).

Methods And Materials: Sixty-two patients with 64 cavities were treated with linear accelerator-based RS alone to the resection cavity after surgical removal of brain metastases between March 2007 and August 2010. Fifty-two patients (81%) had a gross total resection.

Intramuscular administration of a VEGF zinc finger transcription factor activator (VEGF-ZFP-TF) improves functional outcomes in SOD1 rats.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is characterized by motor neuron loss leading to paralysis and death. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has angiogenic, neurotrophic, and neuroprotective properties, and has preserved neuromuscular function and protected motor neurons in rats engineered to overexpress the human gene coding the mutated G93A form of the superoxide dismutase-1 (SOD1). We assessed the effects of intramuscular administration of a plasmid that encodes a zinc finger protein transcription factor (ZFP-TF) engineered to induce VEGF expression in the SOD1 rat model of ALS.

Platform and cannula design improvements for spinal cord therapeutics delivery.

Background: Only recently have data been published attempting to validate a technology and technique suitable for targeted delivery of biological payloads to the human spinal cord.

Objective: To characterize the development and evolution of a spine-stabilized microinjection platform as a vehicle for biologics delivery to the cervical and thoracolumbar spine on the basis of preclinical experience in both non-Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) experimental series and GLP studies.

Methods: Our laboratory completed > 100 cervical and lumbar porcine microinjection procedures between July 2004 and June 2010.

Cervical multilevel intraspinal stem cell therapy: assessment of surgical risks in Gottingen minipigs.

Study Design: Assessment of long-term surgical risks from multiple intraspinal cell injections.

Objective: To prove that multilevel-targeted cell injection to the spinal cord can be a feasible and safe procedure.

Summary Of Background Data: Neural cell transplantation has been proposed as a treatment for a variety of neurologic disorders, including degenerative, ischemic, autoimmune, and traumatic etiologies.

Metastasis infiltration: an investigation of the postoperative brain-tumor interface.

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate brain infiltration of metastatic tumor cells past the main tumor resection margin to assess the biological basis for the use of stereotactic radiosurgery treatment of the tumor resection cavity and visualized resection edge or clinical target volume.

Methods And Materials: Resection margin tissue was obtained after gross total resection of a small group of metastatic lesions from a variety of primary sources. The tissue at the border of the tumor and brain tissue was carefully oriented and processed to evaluate the presence of tumor cells within brain tissue and their distance from the resection margin.

A conditioning lesion provides selective protection in a rat model of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Background: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is neurodegenerative disease characterized by muscle weakness and atrophy due to progressive motoneuron loss. The death of motoneuron is preceded by the failure of neuromuscular junctions (NMJs) and axonal retraction. Thus, to develop an effective ALS therapy you must simultaneously preserve motoneuron somas, motor axons and NMJs.