Sustainability and Green Practices in the Neurosurgical Operating Room: A Scoping Literature Review.

Background: The healthcare sector is a significant contributor to worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. The specific environmental impacts of neurosurgical operations remain largely unexplored.

Objective: To identify and review existing literature on sustainability and environmental impacts in the neurosurgical operating room, with an aim to assess scope and scale, and secondarily to evaluate potential interventions pertinent to neurosurgery.

Utilization of Vertebroplasty/Kyphoplasty in the Management of Compression Fractures: National Trends and Predictors of Vertebroplasty/Kyphoplasty.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine the utilization of kyphoplasty/vertebroplasty procedures in the management of compression fractures. With the growing elderly population and the associated increase in rates of osteoporosis, vertebral compression fractures have become a daily encounter for spine surgeons. However, there remains a lack of consensus on the optimal management of this patient population.

Characterizing utilization patterns and reoperation risk factors of interspinous process devices: analysis of a national claims database.

Introduction: Interspinous process devices (IPDs) were developed as minimally invasive alternatives to open decompression surgery for spinal stenosis. However, given high treatment failure and reoperation rates, there has been minimal adoption by spine surgeons. This study leveraged a national claims database to characterize national IPD usage patterns and postoperative outcomes after IPD implantation.

Evaluating Surgical Cervical Arthrodesis With a Novel MRI Grading Score.

Study Design: This was a single-institution retrospective study.

Objective: Evaluate a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-scoring system to differentiate arthrodesis from pseudoarthrosis following anterior cervical discectomy and fusion.

Summary Of Background Data: Diagnostic workup following fusion surgery often includes MRI to evaluate neural structures and computed tomography (CT) and/or dynamic x-rays to evaluate instrumentation and arthrodesis.

Early postoperative MRI findings following anterior cervical discectomy and fusion: What to expect when the unexpected happens.

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is not routinely ordered following spinal fusion. Some literature suggests MRIs are unhelpful due to postoperative changes that obscure interpretation. We aim to describe findings of acute postoperative MRI following anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF).

Minimally Invasive Preganglionic C2 Root Section for Occipital Neuralgia: 2 Case Reports and Operative Video.

Background: Occipital neuralgia is a painful condition that is believed to occur from processes that affect the greater, lesser, or third occipital nerves. Diagnosis is often made with a combination of classical symptoms, tenderness over the occipital region, and response to occipital nerve blocks. Cervical computed tomography or MRI may be obtained in multiple positions to detect any impingement.

Possible association of trichorhinophalangeal syndrome I and intracranial subependymoma.

Trichorhinophalangeal syndromes (TRPSs) are rare hereditary syndromes with autosomal dominant inheritance. Patients exhibit abnormalities including bulbous pear-shaped nose, broad columella, and long and flat philtrum, fine, sparse, brittle, slow-growing scalp hair, skeletal abnormalities, and short stature. Three families; age at subependymoma surgery, pathogenic TRPS1(NM_014112.

Minimally Invasive Posterior Cervical Diskectomy: Operative Video.

Cervical disk protrusion is a common pathology. Anterior diskectomy and fusion is considered the gold standard of treatment, although anterior arthroplasty has gained some acceptance in the past decade as an alternative. Posterior cervical minimally invasive diskectomy is a rarely used technique, and there is less literature discussing this procedure.

Trends in Weight and Body Mass Index after Spinal Surgery for Degenerative Disease.

Background: Currently, 37% of adults in the United States are obese, and 34% are overweight. Obesity poses a particularly complex challenge in spinal surgery management, whereby risk of adverse surgical outcomes increases with increased body mass index (BMI). When patients are counseled to reduce weight to levels associated with acceptable surgical risks, patients often respond that their spinal problems prohibit the exercise needed to lose the required weight and counter that surgery will allow for increased activity and thereby facilitate weight loss.

Association of Preoperative Hemoglobin A1c and Body Mass Index with Wound Infection Rate in Spinal Surgery.

Background: The deleterious effect of diabetes mellitus on surgical outcomes is well documented for joint replacement surgery. We analyzed the large national US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) database for patients who had undergone elective spinal surgery.

Methods: We retrospectively searched the VA database and identified 174 520 spine cases.

Lumbar Fusion With Polyetheretherketone Rods Use for Patients With Degenerative Disease.

Introduction: Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) rods for lumbar fusion have been available since 2007. However, literature about their utility is sparse and of mixed outcomes.

Methods: A retrospective review of PEEK rod lumbar fusion cases was performed.

Anterior Cervical Arthrodesis With Polyetheretherketone Spacers: What is the Role of the Grafting Material?

Study Design: This was a retrospective study of 2 surgeons' use of a single polyetheretherketone (PEEK) device.

Objective: Our objective was to investigate the fusion adjunct placed within PEEK devices to examine the likelihood of an arthrodesis, regardless of the PEEK interbody device itself.

Summary Of Background Data: The effectiveness of PEEK interbody devices in anterior cervical arthrodesis has been questioned.

Morphological changes of the dorsal contour of the corpus callosum during the first two years of life.

Background: In the medicolegal literature, focal concavities or notching of the corpus callosum has been thought to be associated with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Recent work suggests corpus callosum notching is a dynamic and normal anatomical feature, although it has not yet been defined in early life or infancy.

Objective: Our purpose was to characterize the dorsal contour of the corpus callosum during the first 2 years of life by defining the prevalence, onset and trajectory of notching on midsagittal T1-weighted images.

Minimally invasive cervical laminectomy for spondylotic myelopathy in medically fragile patients.

Background: Cervical spondylotic myelopathy often affects elderly and fragile patients who are not optimal candidates for major surgical procedures. Here, we report patients previously judged not suitable for cervical surgery, who were successfully treated with minimally invasive (MI) cervical decompressions without complications.

Methods: Retrospectively, we reviewed medically fragile patients (e.

Minimally Invasive Cervical Laminectomy for Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy.

Objective: Cervical spondylotic myelopathy is a common cause of neurological disability, especially in aging populations. There are several approaches to decompress the cervical spinal cord, including anterior cervical discectomy and fusion, corpectomy and fusion, arthroplasty, posterior cervical laminectomy with or without fusion, and laminoplasty. Less well described is minimally invasive cervical laminectomy.

Technique of Minimally Invasive Cervical Foraminotomy.

Background: Posterior cervical foraminotomy is a long utilized and commonly performed procedure, but has been supplanted in many cases by anterior procedures. With the advent of minimally invasive techniques, posterior foraminotomy may again deserve a prominent place in the treatment of cervical foraminal stenosis.

Objective: To report in detail a successfully utilized minimally invasive technique and the results in a large series of patients, by a single author.

TRPS1 gene alterations in human subependymoma.

Subependymoma is a rare primary brain tumor, constituting 0.07-0.51% of brain tumors.

Neurosurgical Subspecialty Bedside Guide Improves Nursing Confidence.

Familiarity with a neurosurgical nursing guide had a positive impact on the confidence of medical-surgical nurses caring for neurosurgical patients and helped improve patient care skills.

Anterior Cervical Interbody Fusion Using a Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) Cage Device and Local Autograft Bone.

In a population of patients with high rates of tobacco use, diabetes mellitus, obesity, and other factors that negatively affect fusion rates, local autograft may be a good choice for efficacy and cost savings.

Diagnosis and Treatment of C4 Radiculopathy.

Study Design: Clinical case series.

Objective: This study sought to clarify symptoms, diagnostic criteria, and treatment of C4 radiculopathy, and the role of diagnostic C4 root block in this entity.

Summary Of Background Data: Although well understood cervical dermatomal/myotomal syndromes have been described for symptoms originating from impingement on the C2, C3, C5, C6, C7, and C8 roots, less has been written about the syndrome(s) associated with the C4 root.

Case comparison and literature review of glioblastoma: A tale of two tumors.

Background: Diagnosis of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) includes a heterogeneous group of tumors. We describe two cases with histopathologically and molecularly similar tumors, but very different outcomes. We attempt to illustrate the need for improved prognostic markers for GBM.