Central adrenal insufficiency following traumatic brain injury: a missed diagnosis in the critically injured.

Background: High-dose steroid administration is no longer recommended in the treatment of acute traumatic brain injury (TBI) as it failed to prove beneficial in improving patients' outcome. However, a masked benefit of steroid administration in TBI management was that it provided corticosteroid replacement therapy in patients with TBI-related central adrenal insufficiency.

Case Presentation: We report the case of a 12-year-old boy who suffered a severe TBI from a motor vehicle accident that resulted in complete deficiency of anterior pituitary function.

Ophthalmological outcomes of patients treated for pineal region tumors.

OBJECTIVE The ophthalmological outcomes of children treated for pineal tumors have received limited attention in the literature. METHODS This paper reviews the outcomes of 29 children treated for pineal and posterior third ventricular tumors in the contemporary era using chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and resection as defined by the histology and/or marker profile of the tumor. RESULTS At the time of diagnosis, all patients except 1 had hydrocephalus and all had ophthalmological involvement.

Radiographic Detectability of Retained Neuropatties in a Cadaver Model.

Background: Counts are the commonest method used to ensure that all sponges and neuropatties are removed from a surgical site before closure. When the count is not reconciled, plain radiographs of the operative site are taken to determine whether the missing patty has been left in the wound. The purpose of this study was to describe the detectability of commonly used neuropatties in the clinical setting using digital technologies.

Disruption of silicone valve housing in a Codman Hakim Precision valve with integrated Siphonguard.

Authors of this report describe 2 patients who had undergone shunt insertion for hydrocephalus and who, at 6 weeks or 9 months after their last revision, presented with symptoms of shunt dysfunction and CSF collections at the valve site. At the ensuing shunt revision in both patients, the silicone housing was fractured and the Siphonguard was disconnected from the Codman Hakim Precision flat-bottom valve. The cause of these failures was not clear since manipulation, bending, and twisting of the valves were not thought to have occurred during implantation.

Delayed visual loss from optochiasmatic arachnoiditis after resection of craniopharyngioma.

Visual loss following surgery for craniopharyngioma is usually the result of operative injury or tumor recurrence. The authors present the case of a 12-year-old boy who developed progressive visual field constriction 11 years after gross-total resection of a solid and cystic craniopharyngioma. No tumor recurrence was evident on multiple MRI studies, and it was only at surgical exploration that the diagnosis of optochiasmatic arachnoiditis was established.

Endoscopic choroid plexus cauterization versus ventriculoperitoneal shunt for hydranencephaly and near hydranencephaly: a prospective study.

Objective: To prospectively evaluate the results of endoscopic choroid plexus cauterization (ECPC) and ventriculoperitoneal shunts (VPSs) in infants with hydranencephaly or near hydranencephaly.

Methods: We prospectively collected clinical data from all untreated hydranencephalic and near hydranencephalic children from October 2006 to March 2008. All patients treated were randomly divided into 2 groups, ECPC or VPS, and submitted to either endoscopic choroid plexus cauterization or ventriculoperitoneal shunt placement.

Bilateral choroid plexus hyperplasia: a case report and management strategies.

Introduction: Choroid plexus hyperplasia (CPH) is a rare cause of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) overproduction and shunt-resistant hydrocephalus in infants. If treated with a ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt, these patients secondarily develop CSF accumulation along the shunt tract and within the peritoneum. The surgical management of this condition is not as clearly defined as in the case of a choroid plexus papilloma or carcinoma.

Optic nerve sheath fenestration and bilateral expansile cranioplasty for raised intracranial pressure in craniometaphyseal dysplasia: a case report.

Introduction: Raised intracranial pressure (ICP) has been previously associated with craniometaphyseal dysplasia (CMD). To our knowledge, expansile cranioplasty has not previously been described as a treatment for raised ICP in this setting. We describe our evaluation and surgical management of a patient presenting with seizures, headaches, and CMD.

Paraparesis caused by an angiolipomatous hamartoma in an adolescent with Proteus syndrome and scoliosis.

This 16-year-old boy with Proteus syndrome suffered acute spinal cord compression secondary to hemorrhage into an extradural paraspinal angiolipomatous hamartoma. A magnetic resonance (MR) imaging study performed 12 years earlier had revealed the presence of this tumor at the apex of a mild thoracic scoliosis, which had been stable during the intervening decade. Spinal cord neurological deficit in Proteus syndrome is rare.