Cerebral abscess in Down syndrome: a systematic review on treatment and prognosis. Illustrative case.

Background: No universal protocol exists for treating cerebral abscesses in Down syndrome. An illustrative case supplemented with a systematic literature review on brain abscesses in Down syndrome is presented, comprising a total of 16 cases. Preoperative infectious disease workups, cardiac examinations including echocardiography, as well as reported surgical and antibiotic treatments were correlated in the reported cohorts.

Operative Anatomy of the Skull Base: 3D Exploration with a Highly Detailed Interactive Atlas.

 We evaluated the usefulness of a three-dimensional (3D) interactive atlas to illustrate and teach surgical skull base anatomy in a clinical setting.  A highly detailed atlas of the adult human skull base was created from multiple high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) scans of a healthy Caucasian male. It includes the parcellated and labeled bony skull base, intra- and extracranial vasculature, cranial nerves, cerebrum, cerebellum, and brainstem.

Papillary meningioma: a rare cause of massive supratentorial intracerebral hemorrhage.

Papillary meningioma (PM) represents a very rare histological subtype, which may present with massive intracerebral hemorrhage. Gross total tumor resection results in a lower recurrence rate and mortality. A 69-year-old man had been experiencing headache for 6 months.

Treatment of type II odontoid fracture in the elderly.

Odontoid fractures constitute the commonest cervical spinal fracture in the elderly. There are varied management approaches with paucity of robust evidence to guide decision-making. We review the case of a 92-years-old man with traumatic Grauer type II B odontoid fracture treated with anterior cannulated screw fixation.

Metastatic epidural spinal cord compression.

Up-to-date management for metastatic epidural spinal cord compression is based on appropriate scoring systems. In this case, separation surgery and stereotactic radiosurgery achieved an optimized outcome. A 75-year-old man had thoracic band-like pain, left lower limb weakness and difficulty ambulating for 6 weeks.

Reduction of thromboembolic events in meningioma surgery: a cohort study of 724 consecutive patients.

Background: Meningiomas are associated with the highest postoperative rate of venous thromboembolic events (VTE) among all intracranial tumors. The aim of this study is to compare two entirely different VTE prophylaxis regimens in 724 consecutive patients undergoing meningioma surgery.

Methods: Two cohorts at a single institution treated with different regimens to prevent VTE were reviewed retrospectively.