Comparative diffusion study of two nitrosoureas: carmustine and fotemustine in normal rat brain, human and rat brain biopsies.

In order to assess the apparent diffusion coefficient of two nitrosoureas (carmustine and fotemustine) in the brain, a model of planar diffusion was used in the rat brain and in rat and human brain biopsies. Drugs were deposed on the brain surface at a constant concentration for 30 min. At the end of the diffusion time, the concentration gradient was determined with microelectrodes using voltammetry at 5 different depths in the extracellular space of the gray matter (0-304 microns).

[Chronic low back pain and lumbar rhizotomy].

Spinal rhizotomy could be used for relief of chronic low back pain, in 287 selected patients suffering from facet joints. The procedure involves placing an electrode on close proximity to the posterior articular nerves to allow destruction by coagulation.

[Clinical tolerance of CY 216 (Fraxiparin) in the prevention of thromboembolic accidents after neurosurgery].

Clinical tolerance of CY 216 was assessed on 97 patients in two neurosurgical departments (Hopital Lariboisière and Hopital Beaujon, Paris). All the 97 patients were operated on by different cranial approaches, but always including bone flap. No thrombo-embolic event could be detected in this series.