Learning Curve for Robot-Assisted Percutaneous Pedicle Screw Placement in Thoracolumbar Surgery.

Study Design: Retrospective review of an initial cohort of consecutive patients undergoing robot-assisted pedicle screw placement.

Purpose: We aimed to evaluate the learning curve, if any, of this new technology over the course of our experience.

Overview Of Literature: Percutaneous pedicle screws have specific advantages over open freehand screws.

Metastatic olfactory neuroblastoma invading a radiation-induced meningioma.

Olfactory neuroblastomas are malignant, neuroectodermal nasal tumours. We describe a 62-year-old patient with a recurrent olfactory neuroblastoma invading a radiation-induced meningioma. Given the temporal and spatial relationship between the primary lesion and the described recurrence, this was due to metastatic rather than direct contiguous spread, fulfilling all the criteria for true tumour-to-tumour metastasis.

Thyroid carcinoma metastasis to the choroid plexus of the lateral ventricle.

We present a rare case of a lateral ventricle choroid plexus metastasis arising from thyroid carcinoma in a 62-year-old man. The patient underwent subtotal excision of the intracranial tumour followed by total thyroidectomy with good outcome. We review previous reports of intracranial thyroid metastases and discuss the role of surgical resection, radiosurgery, whole brain radiotherapy and radioactive iodine therapy.

Promising survival in patients with high-grade gliomas following therapy with a novel boronated porphyrin.

Current treatment strategies for high-grade gliomas are inadequate with high rates of disease recurrence and poor overall survival. Photodynamic therapy has been extensively investigated for a variety of tumours including high-grade gliomas. We have previously described a novel boronated porphyrin (BOPP) which has highly selective uptake by tumour cells.