Typical NF2 and LTZR1 mutations are retained in an immortalized human schwann cell model of schwannomatosis.

Human SCs play a primary role in SWN, a rare genetic disorder in which patients develop multiple schwannomas. So that, their isolation and immortalization could represent an irreplaceable tool to investigate the disease etiopathology. Although few clones of tumoural SCs have been obtained, unfortunately they present genetic, morphological and biological characteristics that do not fully represent the original cells.

The "banana splitting DREZotomy": an atraumatic method to improve pain relief after dorsal root entry zone lesioning in brachial plexus injuries. Case series and tenets for the treatment.

Background: The treatment of neuropathic deafferentation pain due to avulsion injuries of the brachial plexus is a major problem, albeit rare, in the neurosurgical practice. The aim of the paper is to present step-by-step the main principles of a surgical upgrade of the well-known Dorsal Root Entry Zone lesioning, that we named banana splitting DREZotomy.

Methods: A comparison is made among three groups of patients, two of which were treated following the classic techniques, while in the third no physical agent is applied to the spinal cord during surgery.

The reanimation of the elbow functions in avulsive injuries of the upper brachial plexus using the medial cord transfer: nuances of the technique and update.

Objectives: Report on a new transfer for the reinnervation of biceps and brachialis muscles after multilevel avulsive injuries of brachial plexus provided at least T1 is viable: the Medial Cord to Musculocutaneous (MCMc) and its variant, the Medial Cord to anterior Upper Trunk (MC-aUT). The MC-aUT is indicated in agenesia of musculocutaneous nerve and when a residual function in the biceps is present. The MCMc transfer would be unfeasible in the former and contraindicated in the latter.

Neurosurgery in times of a pandemic: a survey of neurosurgical services during the COVID-19 outbreak in the Veneto region in Italy.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak and of the subsequent lockdown on the neurosurgical services of the Veneto region in Italy compared to the previous 4 years.

Methods: A survey was conducted in all 6 neurosurgical departments in the Veneto region to collect data about surgical, inpatient care and endovascular procedures during the month of March for each year from 2016 to 2020. Safety measures to avoid infection from SARS-CoV-2 and any COVID-19 cases reported among neurosurgical patients or staff members were considered.

Dorsal root entry zone lesion: nuances of the technique and long-term results.

The treatment of deafferentation pain is a primary goal of a referral center for peripheral nerve surgery. DREZ is an important asset in the neurosurgeon's armamentarium. The surgical technique and long-term results are analyzed in two series, with or without intraoperative monitoring (IOM).

Anomalous K 7 channel activity in human malignant hyperthermia syndrome unmasks a key role for H S and persulfidation in skeletal muscle.

Background And Purpose: Human malignant hyperthermia (MH) syndrome is induced by volatile anaesthetics and involves increased levels of cystathionine β-synthase (CBS)-derived H S within skeletal muscle. This increase contributes to skeletal muscle hypercontractility. K 7 channels, expressed in skeletal muscle, may be a molecular target for H S.

[Complicities and ambivalences of psychiatry: Münsterlingen and the 1954 feast of fools].

In March 1954, Foucault visited the psychiatric asylum of Münsterlingen (Canton Thurgau), on the Swiss side of Lake Constance. Münsterlingen was the chosen place of activity for well-known psychiatrists, including Hermann Rorschach (1910-1913), and it became famous in the history of psychiatry especially through the work of Roland Kuhn, who was active in the asylum from 1939 to 1979. Kuhn was an expert in the Rorschach psycho-diagnostic test, as well as the discoverer of the first antidepressant in the early 1950s.

[Where is going philosophy of psychiatry ?].

This contribution provides a critical outline of the current trends in the field of "philosophy of psychiatry" by following their developments in the last decade. The first part of the paper focuses on the evolution of this field from a strictly conceptual approach to a perspective more attentive to the social, practical, and clinical dimension of psychiatry. The second part of the paper points out that the need of a mutual commitment of philosophy and psychiatry is perceived according to different ways by the countries involved in this research area.

[On Michel Foucault's unpublished lectures on Ludwig Binswanger's existential analysis (Lille 1953-54)].

This paper aims to analyze Michel Foucault's position toward phenomenological psychology and psychopathology during the 1950s, in light of the new documentary sources available today. Our investigation is especially focused on one of the courses given by Foucault at the University of Lille between 1952 and 1954, namely, the course on "Binswanger and phenomenology" (1953-54). The analysis of this course, which was conceived by Foucault within the context of a philosophical reflection on the anthropological problem of psychopathology, will finally allow us to re-ascribe Foucault the place he deserves in the field of "philosophy of psychiatry".

Motor evoked potential monitoring improves outcome after surgery for intramedullary spinal cord tumors: a historical control study.

Objective: The value of intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (INM) during intramedullary spinal cord tumor surgery remains debated. This historical control study tests the hypothesis that INM monitoring improves neurological outcome.

Methods: In 50 patients operated on after September 2000, we monitored somatosensory evoked potentials and transcranially elicited epidural (D-wave) and muscle motor evoked potentials (INM group).