Enhancing Surgical Education for Medical Students Through Virtual Reality: The Digital Surgical Operating Theatre Tour.

Objective: Although the operating theatre offers unique didactic opportunities, it can be perceived as an uncomfortable environment by medical students due to the lack of theatre etiquette, time pressure and parallel work of different disciplines. We investigated whether virtual reality (VR) training can significantly reduce some of these fears and improve surgical education for medical students.

Methods: We randomly divided a group of 24 medical students and investigated the effects of a VR application (digitally recreated operating theatre tour) and compared it with currently-in-use written instructions for operational tasks in the operating theatre.

Otogenic brain abscess and concomitant acute COVID 19 infection - case report and review of the literature.

Background: COVID-19 has attracted global attention primarily because of the severe acute respiratory symptoms associated with it. However, nearly one third of the patients also present with neurologic symptoms. This report describes a case of a previously healthy woman with acute COVID-19 infection, who developed acute facial nerve palsy and rapid progression to coma due to otogenic brain abscess.

Return to Work Following Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion with Percutaneous Posterior Pedicle Fixation: A Retrospective Analysis from Two Academic Centers in Germany.

Return to work after spinal surgery is a crucial factor in the recovery process. It can contribute not only to physical rehabilitation but also to psychological well-being. This study aims to evaluate the rate of return to work following elective lumbar spine surgery and identify predictors that predict failure of return to work.

Cranioplasty after Decompressive Craniectomy (DC) in a Patient with Intracerebral Hemorrhage after SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination-Related Vaccine-Induced Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia (VITT)-Proposal of a Management Protocol for This Rare Pathological Condition.

The COVID-19 (coronavirus disease) pandemic had a severe impact on public health worldwide. A rare but serious complication after administration of adenoviral vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 (AstraZeneca-Oxford and Johnson & Johnson) is vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (VITT), which can lead to serious complications such as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST). CVST itself can cause subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) and/or intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), leading to high mortality due to herniation of brain parenchyma.