Mucocele of the Sphenoid Sinus.

Mucocele of the paranasal sinuses is a rare disease with slow evolution. It is a benign, encapsulated and destructive formation filled with mucous fluid and tapistrated with respiratory epithelium. Of all the paranasal sinuses, the sphenoid sinus is affected in only 1-7% of the cases.

Spontaneous Spondylodiscitis - Epidemiology, Clinical Features, Diagnosis and Treatment.

Spontaneous spondylodiscitis is a rare but serious infectious disease which is a combination of an inflammatory process, involving one or more adjacent vertebral bodies (spondylitis), the intervertebral discs (discitis) and finally - the neighboring neural structures. In most cases the condition is due to a hematogenous infection and can affect all regions of the spinal cord, but it is usually localized in the lumbar area. The most common clinical symptom is a pronounced, constant and increasing nocturnal paravertebral pain, while consequently different degrees of residual neurological symptoms from nerve roots and/or spinal cord may appear.

Initial Experience with O-Arm Navigated Spinal Surgery - Report on Two Cases.

Image-guided spinal surgery is becoming increasingly popular because it allows surgeons to achieve minimal invasiveness and maximum precision in the performed procedures. We present our initial experience with two cases operated on using O-arm-based spinal navigation at the Clinic of Neurosurgery in St George University Hospital, Plovdiv, Bulgaria. In the first case, we performed removal of extradural spinal tumor of the sixth thoracic vertebra and O-arm-navigated pedicle screw fixation.

Thoracic Meningioma In Combination With Severe Lumbar Spinal Stenosis Presenting With Atypical Neurological Deficit.

We report on a case of a 47-year-old female patient with a long history of low back pain irradiating bilaterally to the legs. Twenty days before admission to our clinic, she had developed progressive weakness in the legs, more pronounced on the left side. The initial neurological examination revealed signs of damage to both the cauda equina and the spinal cord.

Surgical management of metastatic tumors of the cervical spine.

Objective: To present the results from the clinical presentation, the imaging diagnostics, surgery and postoperative status of 17 patients with cervical spine metastases, to analyse all data and make the respective conclusions and compare them with the available data in the literature.

Patients And Methods: The study analysed data obtained by patients with metastatic cervical tumours treated in St George University Hospital over a period of seven years. All patients underwent diagnostic imaging tests which included, separately or in combination, cervical x-rays, computed tomography scan and magnetic-resonance imaging.

Neurocognitive impairments in brain tumor patients.

There is an increased scientific interest in cognitive impairments caused by brain tumors during the last decade. It has lead to the introduction and routine clinical usage of neuropsychological test batteries in brain tumor patients, thus making them an important clinical measure for the assessment of the efficacy of the different treatment regimens such as surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The effect of cognitive deficit on patients' quality of life and survival has been unequivocally proven.