Is the Patient State Index a reliable parameter as guide to anaesthesiology in cranial neurosurgery? A first intraoperative study and a literature review.

Background: Patient State Index (PSI) and Suppression Ratio (SR) are two indices calculated by quantitative analysis of EEG used to estimate the depth of anaesthesia but their validation in neurosurgery must be done. Our aim was to investigate the congruity PSI and SR with raw EEG monitoring in neurosurgery.

Methods: We included 34 patients undergoing elective cranial neurosurgery.

Intraoperative Mapping of the Sensory Root of the Trigeminal Nerve in Patients with Pontocerebellar Angle Pathology.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to determine the position of the 3 sensory branches of the trigeminal nerve in the preganglionic tract using intraoperative neurophysiological mapping.

Methods: We included consecutive adult patients who underwent neurosurgical treatment of cerebellopontine angle lesions. The trigeminal nerve was antidromically stimulated at 3 sites along its circumference with different stimulus intensities at a distance of ≤1 cm from the brainstem.

Feasibility of Intraoperative Visual Evoked Potential Monitoring by Cortical Strip Electrodes in Patients During Brain Surgery: A Preliminary Study.

Objective: The role of visual evoked potentials (VEPs) monitoring during neurosurgical procedure in patient remains unclear. The purpose of our study was to determine the feasibility of intraoperative VEP recording using a strip cortical electrode during surgical resection of intracranial lesions.

Methods: In this prospective, monocentric, observational study, we enrolled consecutive patients undergoing neurosurgical procedure for intracranial lesions.

Effects of Class II-Selective Histone Deacetylase Inhibitor on Neuromuscular Function and Disease Progression in SOD1-ALS Mice.

Emerging evidence indicates that transcriptome alterations due to epigenetic deregulation concur to ALS pathogenesis. Accordingly, pan-histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors delay ALS development in mice, but these compounds failed when tested in ALS patients. Possibly, lack of selectivity toward specific classes of HDACs weakens the therapeutic effects of pan-HDAC inhibitors.

Neurophysiology of the pelvic floor in clinical practice: a systematic literature review.

Neurophysiological testing of the pelvic floor is recognized as an essential tool to identify pathophysiological mechanisms of pelvic floor disorders, support clinical diagnosis, and aid in therapeutic decisions. Nevertheless, the diagnostic value of these tests in specific neurological diseases of the pelvic floor is not completely clarified. Seeking to fill this gap, the members of the Neurophysiology of the Pelvic Floor Study Group of the Italian Clinical Neurophysiology Society performed a systematic review of the literature to gather available evidence for and against the utility of neurophysiological tests.

Proposal of a new criterion for electrodiagnosis of meralgia paresthetica by evoked potentials.

We examined 19 subjects with meralgia paresthetica (bilateral in three cases), recording bilateral somatosensory-evoked potentials (SSEPs) after stimulation of the tibial posterior nerve (TPN) and cutaneous stimulation in the region of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve (LFCN). We calculated the difference between TPN SSEPs and LFCN SSEPs cortical potentials, identifying a temporal parameter that we termed D(SEP). We defined D(SEP) normal values in a control group.

Autonomic nerve dysfunction in pathologically obese patients.

Background: Obese patients frequently present clinical symptoms related to gastrointestinal motility alterations and autonomic nervous system dysfunction.

Aim: To evaluate the possible correlation between cardiovascular autonomic nervous dysfunction and oesophageal motility in pathologically obese patients.

Patients And Methods: Enrolled in the study were 22 patients with a body mass index of 45.

Ability and fitness to drive of Parkinson's disease patients.

The authors review reports in the literature on the fitness and ability to drive of neurosurgical patients and subjects afflicted by neurological disorders, before focusing on their own series of 204 idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. The study sample comprised 173 men and 31 women (average age 70.6 and 74.

[Nonpsychotic involutional inhibited depressions and psycho-organic deteriorations: treatment with Viloxazine and piracetam].

Involutional depression is often the first symptom of a psycho-organic syndrome or dementia and may not present overt symptoms itself; these depressive states have been variously classified by different schools in various countries. The hypothesis of catecholamine and indolamine in the aetiopathogenic agent is oversimplistic and the theory that abnormal receptor hypersensitivity is the cause of the condition is more convincing. On the basis of this hypothesis numerous studies have been conducted into the efficacy of various antidepressants in the treatment of this hypersensitivity.

Operatory indications and licence of craniostenosis.

On average 0.04% of the population is affected by craniostenosis. It is believed there are anatomo-clinical forms at moderate risk and others at high risk.

[Neurotraumatology and post-traumatic epilepsy. Prevention, treatment and long-term follow-up. Barbexaclone + phenobarbital (maliasin) versus diphenylhydantoin, phenobarbital, primidone, carbamazepine].

A report is presented on 58 patients (46 males, 12 females) all suffering from post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE) and followed up for a minimum of 1 year to maximum of 23 years after the injury (mean 6.3 years). The type and site of the head injury, the nature of the brain lesions, the time elapsing before the first critical manifestation, the clinical character of the epileptic attacks, EEG, cerebral CAT and RMN data were performed are given for all patients.